Heading back West
Alex Tatham has recently returned to Westcoast in a new role and is optimistic about the future for the print side of the business and the channel more widely.
Alex Tatham is back at somewhere he considers home – Westcoast. After a year away at NSC Global Services he has returned to the company where he previously spent 15 years, latterly as managing director of the UK business. In his new expanded role that goes across the business, he will be overseeing many sectors, including print.
“In print you’re going to see increasing in numbers of vendors come through Westcoast,” he says. “In consumables, which Westcoast is strong in, vendors are generally consolidating their distribution lineup, taking costs out for themselves and making sure that their stock is better managed because they get into trouble by putting too much stock into distribution. But Westcoast will be one of the big companies that they’re consolidating everything into and therefore we will sub-distribute to a whole range of others.
“When I joined Westcoast originally, there were 30 distributors around Europe doing consumables. Well, I reckon in two years, there’ll be three, and Westcoast will be one of them. I think the European expansion that Westcoast has done – including the acquisition of Komsa – will assist and accelerate that opportunity for vendors to be able to use Westcoast as the pan European distributor for consumables.”
Print diversification
While print volumes may be decreasing, those in the market are finding other ways to make money, such as with the convergence with IT management. “You can absolutely see that happening now, but there’s still a lot more that print companies can do to diversify,” he says.
For instance, there are other areas of print that resellers can look to focus on. Westcoast owns two large format printing and distribution businesses, Art Systems and Colour Gen, both based in Nottingham. Alex says these businesses will surely work more closely with Westcoast’s own print business meaning that the company can provide more opportunities for resellers in the large format printing sector, which is growing as more businesses look to do this sort of thing in-house rather than contract it out to specialist print houses. “This will help to put Westcoast even more on the map of the UK and Irish print business,” he adds.
Managed print is another area that is developing and changing and giving resellers opportunities, Alex says. “Westcoast sits at the heart of a lot of these things and a lot of print companies come to Westcoast because of our experience in this market and what we can provide for them,” he says.
Optimism in the marketplace
Alex adds that there is more optimism in the print channel now that things are going in the right direction, perhaps more so than at any time in the previous three years.
“It couldn’t have got much worse!” laughs Alex. “It was a market terribly affected by COVID but now people are coming back to the office, so it is improving, but there’s still probably less printing going on than there was pre-COVID.”
He adds that the hybrid environment also provides opportunities for print sellers, especially with more compact models and mobile scanners too. “We also have more businesses looking for efficiencies and there are printers out there that can help with that goal, which provides further opportunities,” he says.
“Things are getting better in the print sector because people are beginning to see where the land lies now after some months of stability in the economy. I think Westcoast will be well placed to take advantage of this in the years to come – and help vendors to do the same.”
