Culley takes up top position at Midwich
Management reshuffle puts Nick Culley in distributor?s driving seat
Distributor Midwich has appointed Nick Culley as its new managing director in the final part of its management reshuffle.
Culley, formerly product marketing director, replaces Nick Pye, who will still work with the company on a part-time consultancy basis.
The firm has also appointed four other new directors. Alex Ward, previously business manager, has become commercial director, Darren Lewitt has been promoted to divisional director for audiovisual (AV), computing and displays, Bobby Watkins has been promoted to sales director, and Stephen Fenby replaces Roger Pulford as finance director.
"It is important to have a strong board to work with and we have made all the changes we wanted to make. The opportunities for Midwich in the future are numerous, and we have an exciting time ahead," Culley said.
He added that the firm has had "a great year" and is confident of "significant growth in 2005".
Midwich is currently focusing on three main areas, Culley said. It is actively seeking to develop its customer base by employing staff to help it reach new markets, it has a couple more new vendor announcements in the pipeline and it has hired new sales people to generate more business from its existing customer base.
Culley added that there is still opportunity for the channel in the AV market.
"There is still growth for core projector and plasma technology, despite the significant level of price erosion which is diluting margins. But there is lots more growth to come from other complimentary AV technology," he said.
One particular area of growth is the home entertainment business, according to Culley.
"It is not just a good growth opportunity for retailers, but for the channel as well. Consumers are installing more sophisticated AV in the home and as the technology becomes easier to use and more affordable it will definitely grow in popularity," he said.
"The market is very buoyant and competitive, but we have to continue to differentiate ourselves from the competition."
Colin Messenger, senior business consultant at analyst firm Decision Tree Consulting, said Midwich has already established a strong reputation in the AV market.
"Midwich has targeted specific areas in a clever way. Considering it has only been selling AV for about four years and has already become the second largest AV distributor in the UK. The future looks bright," said Messenger.