30 01732 759725 Steady growth wins the day capabilities, they’ll want to know how we can help them get there. At the end of the day, that’s our job, helping partners take those steps away from where they are now. TR: How have you diversified your offering, and how do you choose what areas to move into? PB: COVID accelerated our strategy, as it did for a lot of businesses like ours. Back then, all the big phone system manufacturers we had disappeared overnight, so we had to diversify very quickly. Our strong areas now are the strong areas of the unified communications (UC) marketplace. We’re still very strong in telephony, with partners like Mitel, Yeastar, Intermedia and a good mix of on-premises and off-premises solutions. Our video business is growing strongly, and that made us want to go into AV and supply screens to partners as well. Those areas have really helped us. We’re a business that likes to grow every year, but we’re not a business that will grow by 50% a year. Nor are we one that will decline by 50% a year. In the last five years, it seems that steady wins. If you overinvest and grow like mad, you’re taking some big risks. Steady growth is the way forward. I told you Nimans was going to remain Nimans and our DNA would survive. Sometimes you wonder whether people take such comments with a pinch of salt. Now they can see the truth of that; Nimans is the same Nimans that it was. I hope slightly better. It’s a great business. Being part of the Midwich Group on a global level is great for me in terms of what I look at for our business. Having more of a feel for what’s happening in other regions, in other countries and what might be about to come here helps with strategy. TR: In the summer you held Nimans Live 2026 at Edgbaston Stadium, bringing together technology vendors and channel partners to learn about developments in communications, networking, collaboration, AV and security technologies. What were your takeaways from that event? PB: The key observation was how keen resellers were to attend. We kept it quite tight and were only looking to get 150 or 200 resellers there. It wasn’t a massive exhibition that people couldn’t get around. That shows how interested resellers are in expanding their technology offering. Business is hard, so if partners can layer in something that’s not too far from where they are now and doesn’t require them to overinvest in new people and new Nimans has been a reassuring presence in the distribution market for more than 40 years. While it’s not been immune to market forces – it was acquired by Midwich in 2022 – it has maintained a consistent culture centred on personal relationships and steady, unflashy growth. At a time of technological change and disruption, is this why it has been attracting so many new partners? Technology Reseller Editor James Goulding recently met up with Nimans Managing Director Paul Burn to discuss this and other matters. Technology Reseller (TR): I’ll start with a simple question: How’s business? Paul Burn (PB): Business is pretty good this year. The UK market’s a little strange, with all that’s happened at Exertis and with other distributors coming together. You’ve got to be mindful of the human element and remember that when a distributor goes away people lose their jobs, but the business opportunity that creates for us is obvious. No doubt that’s helped us, as has our move into new technology areas. TR: Does being part of the larger Midwich group help you weather difficult business conditions? PB: After we were bought by Midwich, DISTRIBUTION Paul Burn
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDUxNDM=