Distributor born during lockdown opens up on growth mission

ABC Distribution boss claims the sector is changing for the better as he shares expansion plans

Three years after launching a brand-new distributor during one of the toughest financial crises to hit the UK economy, Chris Walsh (pictured), managing director of relatively new-kid-on-the-block ABC Distribution, is feeling bullish for the future.

ABC was formed during lockdown, but has already grown to seven team members with expected turnover of £5m in the coming year. It is also on the verge of launching a new platform to pair up vendors and resellers, which is in the final stages of testing.

The distributor prides itself on doing things differently as both vendors and resellers' needs continue to evolve and change.

"I sometimes can't believe we are actually where we are today and I'll never forget the people who supported us, spent time with us and went above and beyond to help us," said Walsh, whose 26-year career includes management/director roles at AlphaGen, Exclusive Networks and OpenPSL.

He explained ABC's role includes incubating new vendors until they are ready to work with channel partners, but also prides itself on vetting vendors about their suitability to launch a channel strategy.

"Vendors are having to change their approach to the market just as resellers are changing the way they operate. During lockdown, more people were working from home and a reseller sales team could sell core products, but training and onboarding a remote sales team for a new vendor is more difficult and needs a different approach," he said.

Walsh said ABC speaks directly to end users asking them who their current partners are and whether they would be interested in working with particular products.

"By the time we speak to resellers we have end users that are interested in taking products to the next stage," he said. "As a distributor we have access to end user data and we know who sells what to each customer - it allows us to offer vendors a more targeted audience and it saves our reseller partners time because there is a guaranteed market for them.

"We are being honest with vendors about how many partners they need and why. They just need to pick the right number of partners that make sense to their business," he said, adding that he is not averse to being brutally honest and cutting ties with unsuitable vendors.

"We are not afraid to say no to vendors who are not fully committed to the channel, or who just don't understand that the UK channel is different from the US channel," he said, revealing that the distributor had walked away from 11 vendors in the last year alone.

"We are always open to talking to them at a later date if their approach or plans haves changed," he said.