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Matthew Cook
April 10, 2018
Managing director backs up promise to ‘wake up’ the industry with strong performance
Tech Data Consumer Technology Group (CTG) has increased revenue growth by around 50 per cent in the past 12 months.
The group was established in February last year after Tech Data Mobile managing director Matt Child vowed to “wake up” the industry with the new consumer electronics company.
Speaking to Mobile News, Child said the group has continued to see “double-digit growth” throughout February and March this year and said year-on-year revenues from March 2017 saw growth in the region of 50 per cent.
CTG offers consumer electronics such as PCs, wearables, accessories, smart home products and VR. Employee numbers at CTG have increased to 41 with total head count going up to 72 when combined with the rest of Tech Data Mobile.
Child added: “We’ve had double-digit growth in the past two months, with March being especially strong for us.
“CTG was created off the back of feedback we had from customers and vendors, which was that Tech Data is a big business, it can be hard to navigate sometimes and getting the right proposition to the right people can be difficult.
“Usually in distribution it’s a case of not having enough resource but we had too much, it just wasn’t lined up correctly, but now we’ve had our first year with Consumer Technology Group and we’ve been really pleased with how it’s gone.”
Child also confirmed Tech Data Mobile is in talks to add another “big manufacturer” to its portfolio of devices.
The distributor currently holds agreements with Apple, Samsung, Google, Blackberry, Doro and Motorola, with Child adding the distributor is always looking out for new manufacturers.
“Watch this space,” he added. “We are in talks with a major manufacture and are right on the cusp of an agreement.
“We’re working with what we think are the major manufacturers in the market but in our experience we’ve also picked up products within smart home and smart tech that are a little bit different, newer to market because it’s a new segment.”
The past 12 months have seen “strong growth” for Tech Data Mobile following a 2016 in which the division saw “triple digit growth.”
Casualties
Child said that growth was driven by increased retailer relationships and a strong performance in the enterprise market.
He said: “On the mobile business side we had a really solid year last year.
“Across the whole technology arena, mobile has become more challenging and I don’t see it getting any easier. I think we’ll see some casualties this year.”