Promethean promises to reinvest in UK VARs

Education vendor to refocus energies on local channel in 2012

Promethean has flagged up plans for increasing investment in the UK channel this year as refresh and new-build opportunities arise in the education sector and the economy continues to recover.

Ian Curtis, head of the northern Europe business at Promethean, said the vendor, which had focused primarily on investments in markets that were still growing abroad, plans to start spending in the UK again as 2012 progresses.

"The UK market has been pretty flat, but we are expecting to see growth in it for the first time this year in a little while, so that is encouraging," Curtis told ChannelWeb. "It has been simply about the maturity of the UK marketplace, and I think there has been some uncertainty around [customer] budgets as well."

The UK and Ireland represent 60 to 65 per cent of the vendor's northern Europe business in revenue terms and have been more or less saturated in terms of IWB penetration in schools, he said, but countries such as Denmark, for example, had been growing very quickly.

"Futuresource Consulting puts the penetration of boards into UK classrooms now at about 84 per cent," said Curtis. However, refreshes are now overdue, and are already starting to "creep in", with the trickle to accelerate to a flow as 2012 progresses, he predicted.

"With new builds, it makes sense to replace the technology and more often than not most new-build schools will. And we are now starting to see that developments in the technology itself are starting to encourage replacements."

Curtis (pictured, right) said developments in how users interact with whiteboards - such as multi-touch - that not only enhance the user experience but open up new possibilities for lesson presentation, would prove attractive to schools considering whether or not to refresh.

Promethean also expected continued growth in its business and government deployments, he suggested. The company set up a corporate and government business arm about a year ago, with a view to sales in the UK and the US especially. The vendor is also doing "serious R&D" of offerings for those markets, Curtis added.

The vendor's relationship with incumbent distributor Maverick continued to be productive, and a UK reseller meet-up has been scheduled for 27 March, Curtis said.

Promethean saw its UK and Ireland revenues -- comprising about seven per cent of its business -- dive by 21 per cent in the full 2011 year, according to analyst firm TechMarketView. Revenue overall fell 5.3 per cent to £222.9m but the company returned to growth in the second half.