'We're growing at a rapid pace' - Paragon Micro UK boss on bringing the reseller across the Atlantic

$150m-revenue US reseller revealed UK plans earlier this year

Paragon Micro is "growing rapidly" in the UK having set up shop in March, UK boss Donavan Hutchinson has told CRN.

The US reseller announced its expansion in January this year, before officially launching a couple of months later, just prior to the national lockdown.

Hutchinson was brought in to head up the operation having carried out a similar job with PCM before it was acquired by Insight.

He said the firm has hit the ground running partly because it already has a strong UK customer base.

"We're growing at a rapid pace," he said. "Paragon Micro has done business in the UK for 10 years through partners, so we always knew that we'd have clients already.

"So there was an existing client base that we could start to bring into the realms of Paragon Micro UK and we've spent a lot of time working with those customers.

"We've also spent a lot of time with other global organisations that we deal with in the US and we're leveraging those relationships to expand across to the UK.

"So knowing that many of our staff would be under restrictive covenants has not caused us a concern in terms of ramping up because we've had customers that they can walk into."

The firm currently has 16 members of staff, working predominantly from home, and is actively looking to grow the team.

It has an office in Rotherham which also houses a configuration centre.

Hutchinson said that the sales approach is solutions driven, with the majority of the services element delivered through partners, including distributors.

Paragon Micro's US operation turns over around $150m a year and Hutchinson said that the UK operation is growing sales sequentially.

However he added that there are no revenue targets in place.

"This is a question that I have often asked our CEO!" he said.

"The difference with the Paragon Micro business is that we haven't set a specific goal of where we want to be in the next 12, 24 or 36 months, in terms of the global organisation.

"We believe that if we treat our employees and our customers well, and deliver against what we say we can do, the numbers will speak for themselves and we will naturally see growth.

"We also don't set our salespeople any targets which sounds bizarre because we're a sales organisation. But the reason for that is targets often hinder a salespersons drive and ambition to succeed. Having a good commission plan in place and offering support to succeed means they'll naturally deliver results."

Hutchinson said there's a chance that Paragon Micro may look to acquire to supplement its organic growth, but added that this isn't the primary focus.

"What we have not done is gone out there, like I did previously, is said we're going to go out there and acquire businesses," he said.

"We are acquisitive, but I'm not saying we're going to go and acquire anybody anytime soon.

"But what I will say is we're building a structured business around what our customers are really focusing on."

The UK operation acts as the hub for Paragon Micro's European business, with Hutchinson revealing that the firm does business in around 70 countries across the continent.

He said that a mainland Europe entity could be required at some stage, depending on the outcome of Brexit trade negotiations.

The wider Paragon Micro group also recently expanded into Canada.