The UK's top 40 IT distributors generated nearly £13bn revenues in their latest years, CRN research has found. Here we count down those ranked 25th to 11th...
"Distribution is like an athlete in its prime"
14. Nimans
Revenues: £95.9m (-7%)
Specialism: Comms
Vendors include: Jabra, BT, Yealink, EPOS, JPL, Unify
HQ: Salford, Greater Manchester
Headcount: 224
This comms distributor saw revenues shrink seven per cent to £95.9m in its year to 31 December 2019, going by the most recently filed annual accounts of ‘Nycomm Ltd' (updated: the firm told us its 2020 revenues stood at £116m - up 8.5 per cent YoY).
Founded in 1985 by the late Julian Niman, the Salford-based outfit is part of £130m-revenue Manchester-based IT group Nycomm,.
Q&A with group CMO Steve McIntyre
What specialism is your firm known for, and what sets you apart from your peers?
The range and depth of our stock and that we have the best logistics performance in the industry for next day delivery backed up with helpful and experienced staff. If you absolutely, definitely, must have UC product on the desk tomorrow - call Nimans - experience is everything.
Have you made any significant vendor signings in last 12 months?
Ericsson LG and Zoom added to our 4 new cloud UC platforms alongside NEC Univerge Blue and Beyond Connectivity
What's the biggest misconception about distribution?
It's about shifting boxes - It's everything outside of the box that matters
How would you summarise the health of the distribution sector in 2021?
It's like an athlete in it's prime!
What's been your biggest disappointment of the last year?
Having to work remotely, whilst we had a great year sales wise, we missed out on being together as the Nimans family.
Do you expect to grow in 2021?
Most definitely!
At first glance, the rise of cloud must be pretty devastating for distributors if there is no physical product to ship. How have you adapted?
The rise if cloud provides other opportunities, that's why we've launched our 4 new cloud UC platforms this month. There is still a big market for on-premise and all communications regardless of where they are hosted need hardware of some kind at either end and we're happy to provide it.
How do you see the role of distribution changing in the 2020s?
Service wraps will become more important to enhance product offerings and the XaaS revenue model brings new opportunities that will drive new hardware adoption and changeout in new directions.
Tell us one thing most people won't know about your company?
We are the largest distributor of EPOS products in the world!
Which £100m distie is on an international growth charge? Find out on the next page...
