Midwich unit strikes gold
Distributor's month-old home entertainment division has widely exceeded targets
Midwich's Home Entertainment (HE) division has exceeded projected sales targets by more than 250 per cent in its first month.
"We anticipated doing £5m in the first year, but actually took in excess of £1m in the first month," said Darren Lewitt, divisional director at the distributor.
Midwich launched its HE division in February in response to increased demand for its plasma, LCD TV, imaging and audio products.
Lewitt attributed Midwich's success to its "non-conflicting channel approach". This enables it to create demand by working in partnership with manufacturers and respecting their channels to market, he claimed.
"This is why manufacturers such as Sony, Sharp, Toshiba. Samsung, Panasonic, Pioneer, NEC, Epson, Elonex and Fujitsu have chosen to work with us. Our style of market-making rather than market-taking is reaping rewards without upsetting the retail channel," Lewitt said.
Geoff Harris, director of reseller Vision Corporation, which has partnered with Midwich for eight years, put its success down to "having a good stream of resellers".
"Midwich's HE division has opened up a bigger market for us and enabled us to sell to different people," he said.
"Plasmas are becoming more exciting because the prices have dropped. Eighteen months ago they cost about £7,000, but now they're at the £1,000 mark. This brings them into the general public's price range.
"People are also more aware of HE, and we're seeing projection systems normally used in businesses being used in homes, to watch football matches, for example."
Midwich has also introduced initiatives, including a staff purchase scheme, to help resellers "exploit the huge demand for HE solutions". A new service called Market Maker creates marketing emails for resellers to send to their customers.
"The Midwich way has always been to add value to the sales process, and to help resellers find new ways to sell more product profitably. Our web site allows resellers to create and email personalised quotations, including margin and profit uplifts, directly to their customers," Lewitt said.
Midwich has just become a distributor member of the Custom Electronic Design and Installation Association.