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We ask PXS Distribution’s UK sales director Robert Hall about offering a set price regardless of volume, the software specialist’s expansion into consumer electronics, its new online reseller portal and rebrand…
What sets your company apart?
PXS is a wholly owned division of Phoenix Distribution South Africa. We pride ourselves on being different to the established distribution companies in the UK through the fact we will never be a box shifter, we are proactive, we have a history of finding new and exciting vendors that have been overlooked by mainstream distribution and getting them to the top of the sales charts.
What products do you distribute?
In the UK we are the exclusive publisher of Bitdefender, Webroot and Avast. We also distribute G Data and Individual Software. Our new consumer electronics vendors include Nakamichi, in1Case, Corelens, and iSAW. Our South African business distributes Microsoft, Symantec, McAfee, Kaspersky, AVG, Bitdefender, Beats by Dr Dre, Monster, Trendnet, Nude Audio and Corel.
Who is your core customer?
We sell into both mainstream retail and the channel. The last year has been spent building a strong reseller base that is not only able to list our products, but they have been able to compete with retail too. Part of this has been in a change to our pricing structure, but we have changed the way we supply our resellers too.
Instead of having a tiered pricing structure that rewards the bigger less-focused resellers, we have one set price regardless of who is buying and what volume they are buying. This way our smaller resellers have been able to get behind our products and really push them out to their customer base, without any fear of being undercut by their bigger rivals. This has been hugely successful for us and compared to 12 months ago, our channel sales make up more than 80 per cent of our revenue.
Why rebrand to PXS Distribution?
Over the past six months we have expanded our product range to include an exciting new group of consumer electronics, covering personal audio, mobile phone cases and accessories, action camera equipment as well as high-end audio products.
The rebrand is not only part of our growing product range in the UK, but as the global business grows and changes, it was required across all regions.
It signifies an exciting new chapter in our businesses history, one that will confirm us as a distribution partner of choice, not just for our ever-growing reseller base, but also for vendors.
How else are you growing?
We now have 65 staff across multiple offices on the African continent.
Notwithstanding significant growth in the UK in terms of business and personnel, including new additional territories, namely Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and Switzerland.
We have grown fast over the last year, most significantly via the acquisition of the Microsoft Software and Peripheral distribution across Southern Africa.
In the UK, Dave Sharples has been appointed head of Security Sales Channel and Ian Vermeulen has become Head of CE Sales Channel. The company is expanding rapidly, and the driving factor behind this is the expansion into new territories and the acquisition of new products.
What are your long-term plans and ambitions for the 12 months ahead and beyond?
We are in the process of launching our new online reseller portal, which will make it possible for our resellers to get pricing in an instant and then convert quotes to orders. This not only helps us streamline our sales process, but allows our resellers get product quickly and effectively.
How do you think the channel will evolve over the next 12 months?
There will be more consolidation and specialisation in terms of the roles that distributors will play within the channel space. We believe retailers will gravitate more towards suppliers that can offer them more value-added distribution.
FACT FILE: PXS Distribution
Contact: 0844 879 4212
Website:www.pxsdistribution.co.uk
Established in UK: 2003
