Wick Hill finds voice in growth plan

Woking-based distributor targets 30 per cent top-line growth through increased comms sales

Kilpatrick: we have focused on going for data resellers and have already had considerable interest

Distributor Wick Hill is banking on its burgeoning voice and data team to help achieve 30 per cent top-line growth this year.

Earlier this month the privately held firm appointed Siobhan Gibbs as business development manager and tasked her with heading up its voice and data team. Known as a security player, Wick Hill surged into the voice arena earlier this year after inking a deal to distribute Samsung IP PBXs.

Gibbs has been tasked with ramping up sales and bolstering the VAD’s comms portfolio. Wick Hill’s chairman Ian Kilpatrick claimed his firm was providing leads and giving VARs hands-on support for their first few voice projects.

“We started with a focus on going for data resellers and we have already had considerable interest,” he said.

Kilpatrick claimed 60 per cent of VARs signed up were new recruits, with the remainder coming from Wick Hill’s historic security base. He added that, for data resellers, voice should be approached as another IP application.

“Data resellers understand levels of service and there is no difference between prioritising voice traffic and web traffic,” said Kilpatrick.

Wick Hill grew revenue 30 per cent last year and is on course to achieve the same level this year, Kilpatrick claimed. He stated that not being publicly listed gave the firm more autonomy.

“We can reinvest margin in taking on new products and are hiring staff across the business,” he added.

“We have also increased spending on marketing activity. If it works when you are not in a recession, it is even more important when you are.”

Scott Dobson, managing director of IP voice distributor Vcomm, claimed security VARs looking to branch into telephony would be most interested in a hosted model.

“Wick Hill is very focused on security and Samsung is not a security-focused PBX vendor,” he said. “It could face an uphill struggle.”