New-look Danwood optimistic despite sales slump

Reseller returns to profit after investing in efficiency programme

Print reseller Danwood has insisted it has "emerged from its period of internal transformation" as it returned to making a profit last year, despite a slump in sales.

For the 12 months to 24 September, profit after tax at the firm reached £5.6m compared with a loss of £8.9m the year before, on sales which fell 8.4 per cent over the same period to £194.1m.

At the start of 2013 Danwood's founder Colin Daniels left the firm as it restated six years of numbers in light of revenue recognition malpractice, which came ahead of a spate of redundancies and leadership changes.

But 2014 marked the end of its "transformation and consolidation" period, it said in its annual report.

"We are now ideally placed to enable the workplace of the future for our customers and move rapidly towards our vision of becoming the most powerful independent provider of document-based workplace solutions in Europe," said its chief executive Steve Francis.

"Our relationships with leading supplier partners have strengthened, providing Danwood with clear market differentiation through the solutions and services we can offer our customers. We have also delivered against our commitment to speed up and become more streamlined: Danwood has reduced total costs by 40 per cent since the new management team arrived in late 2012. Danwood is now, for the first time, leveraging its scale to drive true efficiency. We are the most efficient independent service partner in the market."

Last year the firm invested £5m in an "intense" internal-development programme for staff designed to put customers' needs first. As a result, a 43-strong customer care team has been put in place alongside a "fresh" customer charter.

"This year, we have delivered on our promises," the firm said in its report. "We have become one collaborative team designed to serve any customers, at every touch point, whether that's through our engineering team, the sales process or after-sales customer care.

"It means rapid and consistent call answering, accurate problem solving, increased uptime and, critically, an innate understanding of our customers so we can deliver and support the right solution for their business needs."