Earlier this month Ex-Peerless-AV EMEA MD Gordon Dutch, ex-Midwich commercial director Lee Baker and former Medium UK owner Ian Sempers announced that they were launching a new marketing consultancy aimed at the global Pro AV, IT and CE sectors.
Here, they talk to AV Magazine about their reasons for returning to the industry, how their business differs from others, the importance of local market knowledge in Europe, and about doing business when there is a risk that physical events cannot happen.
AV Magazine: What made you come back into the industry?
Lee Baker: Well it was all Gordon’s fault really. I stepped back from Midwich a couple of years ago and had planned to rest up for a while. However, Gordon and I had not only worked closely together when he was at Peerless-AV, but had also become good friends. So, we met up for some lunch in London for a catch up earlier in 2020, when we were allowed, and Gordon paid, so I knew he was up to something!
Ian Sempers: Whilst I was enjoying my “early retirement’ since selling the Medium (UK) Ltd business in late 2016, I was considering a return to an industry that I enjoy when my non-compete period elapsed at the start of 2020. A key consideration for me was that any business I became involved with should adopt an innovative approach in the way it operates as well as be fun. When Gordon explained his plans and the team that he was creating I was sold.
Gordon Dutch: Indeed it was my fault… However as history has proven, many a great idea was born this way. When I stepped back from Peerless-AV in 2017, I did rest up for a while and realised fairly quickly that I wasn’t very good at golf, didn’t enjoy golf and needed to keep my brain active. I then set up a business consultancy called BBG Business Development and had reasonable success with some clients in both CE and Pro AV. I noticed that, in virtually every case, the client wanted me to help run their sales and provide marketing. Whilst I was happy to provide sales advice, I certainly had no plans to go back on the road and in marketing I kept putting business into third parties. When Covid hit, I was due to be the keynote speaker at a large retail conference at the NEC in Birmingham and was booked right through to the end of the year and then everything got cancelled within a week or so. Like many other people, the enforced break gave me time to assess what I was doing and hence I came up with the idea of Re-Sauce, which I then pitched to Lee and Ian.
AV Magazine: What is this business? Is it a business consultancy or a PR and marketing agency?
Lee Baker: We primarily see ourselves as a business consultancy that provides strategic advice and business introductions for brands that want to expand their sales and channel globally. Between the three of us, I can’t imagine that there are too many brands of note, where we don’t know someone who works for them and at a very high level. Obviously having been the commercial director at Midwich Group, I was in overall charge of every vendor that Midwich dealt with in the UK and Ireland, and held a large number of senior relationships with our suppliers for the group. So when you add both Ian’s and Gordon’s contacts to that as well, we are as confident as we can be that we will always be able to make an effective introduction for any brands that we work with in virtually any market or geographical location anywhere in the world
Gordon Dutch: To me we are both. When I first sold my business to Peerless-AV back in 2009, I joined the global board of a significant sized US business with direct responsibility for developing the EMEA business. However, before I could even start that, we had some major changes to make – not least product-wise as all the existing Peerless-AV products in the US were in Imperial and not metric. We knew that to be successful in Europe, you had to have a product that was developed for the needs of the local markets and so we were able to design and launch a whole range of product called ‘Modular’ that we even had made here in the UK, both for speed and because I am passionate about local manufacturing. So we have all the press, PR and marketing, but most importantly we also understand everything you need to do in the backroom to become a success as well.
Ian Sempers: We are primarily a business consultancy specialising in sales and business introductions, but with the added bonus of being able to supply anything and everything a brand might also need in terms of PR and marketing as well. When Gordon joined Peerless, he was tasked with launching them in Europe and so it was agreed that they would completely redevelop the brand, taking them from Peerless Mounts into Peerless-AV. I think all of us in the industry saw not only the incredible development of the brand, but also the speed with which this was done. It was highly impressive.
AV Magazine: How are you different to other business consultants?
Ian Sempers: The main difference between Re-Sauce and many other business consultants is our deep knowledge of Pro-AV. It is fairly easy to access data on Pro-AV, especially if you are willing to pay for it. However, this data doesn’t tell you what is really happening at the coalface. We know pretty much every distributor in EMEA – not only what brands they sell, but how pro-active or reactive they are and in what channels.
Lee Baker: I agree. Part of my role at Midwich was to help identify M & A targets and so through that project, I was able to understand the inner workings of not only all the businesses that Midwich acquired, but of course all the ones we looked at and didn’t.
Gordon Dutch: When I ran Peerless, I signed pan-European deals with a number of large global and pan-European disties and other businesses. Whilst the agreements covered pan-European levels of service and other critical areas, they allowed Peerless to decide whether to work on a country by country basis with the business unit in each local market. Therefore we were able to include them in the local market strategy where they were most relevant. Doing this is especially important when you win large global projects that need global fulfilment.
AV Magazine: Is it that important to know the local markets within each country?
Lee Baker: It’s essential. Whilst some markets in Europe might have similarities in how they operate, every country has their own quirks in the channel. Some brand and companies are far more influential in certain markets than others and, of course, you must factor in all the different cultures and languages.
Ian Sempers: As people might know, I started my AV career at Medium in Germany, a specialist Pro-AV distributor in Düsseldorf, before coming back to set up my own business Medium UK. Whilst out in Germany, I had to learn the language and understand the channel. The UK and Germany are the two largest markets in Europe for Pro AV and so we couldn’t be better placed to help brands coming into Europe and, looking at what Gordon and his team did for Peerless-AV, you could almost write a best practice case study on how to bring in a major US brand and make it successful in not only the UK, but all across Europe and the EMEA.
Gordon Dutch: It was hard work and I learned a lot in that process. Like any new brand in rapid growth, there were decisions and areas that I might reconsider now with hindsight, but I think in general we did a really good job and so I believe that having been through that process, we are well placed to advise brands on the benefits and potential pitfalls of launching in Europe. As Lee said, it is essential you know the local market and so my theory has always been think global, but act local.
AV Magazine: Is it predominantly US brands coming into the UK and Europe that you are targeting?
Gordon Dutch: As well as targeting US brands, we believe that there is also an opportunity for us to assist UK and European brands launching into the US and other markets globally. After all, Midwich is now a global business and so is Peerless-AV. We also have excellent links with other top-quality press and PR agencies all across the globe that can help back up the business and sales piece, and high-quality translation when needed. There’s nothing worse than having poor translation when you are trying to move into a new market. It just doesn’t reflect well.
Lee Baker: So many Pro-AV businesses have either merged or been acquired and being a global player is critical to anyone who wants to win large international contracts.
Ian Sempers: It’s interesting to see the expansion of Midwich and also Exertis which bought the Medium UK business. They are another European business going global. Look at all the companies they have recently acquired, including Stampede in the US.
AV Magazine: How do you see physical events working in the coming year or years?
Gordon Dutch: It’s a very difficult time and so, of course, everything will depend on what happens with the inoculation programs not just in the UK, but globally. With the current restrictions on travel and hotel stays, there are some significant obstacles still around.
Ian Sempers: No one wants this terrible virus, especially if you are abroad and might not speak the local language. Then you have all the issues of travel insurance. It’s very difficult and I feel for the organisers of ISE. It’s an amazing show. I think it is the best in the world and so I hope that they can run it, but if not then as a business then you have to think how do you get your products and message out to your customers and that will be a major consideration I am sure for all businesses and brands going forward.
Lee Baker: We are all keen to see ISE run in June. However, you have to now weigh up all the costs and risks. It is not just the time from your own schedule at any show. It is the time needed to quarantine on arrival or when you return. I am planning on attending InfoComm in October on behalf of Re-Sauce, assuming it runs as planned. I guess we will all still have to wait and see what happens with any further mutations though.
AV Magazine:- What is next for Re-Sauce after your launch at the start of this month?
Gordon Dutch: Our main focus will be to add a sales side to the business – someone who can actually go out and sell the brands that we work with as, at the end of the day, that is what brands are really after. If you put the business experience and contacts we have alongside the press, PR and marketing and then add a sales force, we become a ‘one stop shop’ for any brand and we believe that this is then an even more interesting proposition.
Ian Sempers: Certainly sales is an area we are considering. That along with some other virtual services we have in development and so watch this space.
Lee Baker: That is the exciting thing. Between us, there is virtually nothing we haven’t done. From building brands and businesses globally, to buying and selling companies and floatations, and that is without all the sales and marketing side. It’s a very exciting business that has the potential to deliver whatever the client needs and, ultimately, that is what will drive our success. That and a lot of hard work of course.
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February 16, 2021 at 07:13PM
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Re-Sauce trio spill the beans on their plans - AV Magazine
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