Simms International celebrates 20th birthday

Distributor reveals ambitious plans for the future as it blows out the candles on its 20th birthday cake

Happy Birthday Simms: The distributor has plenty of plans up its sleeve for 2010

Specialist distributor Simms International is celebrating its 20th birthday this year and is bullish about the future.

The firm was formed in 1990 above an Italian restaurant in Upper Street, London, and is still privately owned by founder Andrew Henderson 20 years on.

Now based in Lenham, Kent, Simms started off as an Apple-focused business with a £500,000 turnover, but it has grown significantly to partner with a number of vendors, including Kingston Technology, Transcend, Patriot and IronKey.

In 1995, the firm launched Simms Australia, partnering with firms such as Apple and Kingston, and this year will see the growth of Simms New Zealand.

Simms has also been active in the acquisition space, snapping up industrial player Jactron, which specialises in vertical markets such as defence and aerospace.

Looking back Henderson said: “I am extremely proud to be celebrating 20 years in business and I strongly believe the success is down to the industry knowledge we had from the start. I realised early on that looking after your people and building strong relationships with your vendors means you are in great shape to support your customers.

“From our first trading year we soon learned that we needed a quality brand to offer resellers installation and technical support. In late 1990 we formed a relationship with Kingston, as I was impressed by their great products, common business ethic and values,” he added. “We operate as an extension of our vendors and remain passionate about specialist memory. We constantly seek creative ways to generate new opportunities for our channel partners. We are also ISO9001 and Investors in People accredited”.

During 2010 the distributor is planning to expand its vendor partner base and give the company a brand facelift to keep the firm up to date.

Marketing director Phil Pace, said: “Our reseller network will benefit from Simms sales, marketing and technical support as well as logistic expertise.”