Vohkus founder aims for £50m with new VAR venture

David Manners says he wants to create a 'Google-like' experience for staff at Sumillion, which he has joined following the expiration of his restrictive coventants

The founder of Vohkus says he intends to "shake up the whole channel" with a new reseller that harbours plans of reaching £50m revenue within five to eight years.

David Manners (pictured) this month became part owner and CEO of start-up reseller Sumillion Limited after his restrictive covenants with Vohkus expired.

Manners said he wants to create a "Google-like" experience for staff at the Basingstoke firm, which partners with HP, Dell, Microsoft and Lenovo and targets customers with between 300 and 3,000 users.

Manners said he took Vohkus from zero to just under £50m revenues before selling his shares three years ago, and wants to repeat the trick at Sumillion, which he said will turn over just £1m in its current financial year. He added that he has "considerable funds available to grow the business".

"However, we want to do things differently," he explained.

"We are an ethical company which has a policy of donating 10 per cent of our [pre-tax] profits to charity each year. I do not know of a single other IT reseller that does this. We have never had anyone leave our company and want to be known as having the highest retention rate in the industry."

Manners billed himself as an expert at cold calling and training new business teams, adding that he wants Sumillion to gain a reputation for being the "hardest-working company in the country".

"I absolutely still believe in getting on the phone and making calls and never being afraid of cold calling and my team will all be experts in the art of cold calling and winning new business," he said.

"I want to create a Google-like experience for our staff. We want to become the number-one place to work in the UK, from offering morning yoga sessions to providing our staff the opportunity to take extended lunch breaks as long as they are going to the gym or doing some form of exercise.

"I honestly want to create a utopia of a company."