To say that 2016 has been a milestone year for Entatech UK would be to greatly understate the nature of the key events and developments catalysed by business turnaround champion Dave Stevinson.
In February 2016 IT distributor Entatech UK settled its lengthy legal battle with the liquidators of Enta Group company Changtel and is now solely owned by Stevinson Capital, a business controlled by Entatech Managing Director Stevinson. The settlement was a long running, challenging and complex deal involving multiple firms of lawyers, and Stevinson ranks the outcome has his best career achievement to date, even bigger than growing GNR from a start-up in his bedroom to a multi-million pound European company within two years.
"The settlement eradicates all uncertainty and has the vital components of affordability and flexibility, enabling Entatech to go forward with purpose and confidence," he said. "We spent a long time working on our turnaround and transformation plan and have adopted a '4S' strategy to be delivered over four years based on the action words - Stabilise, Structure, Strength and Solutions. We have completed the Stabilisation phase in the first year and are now embarking on the Structure element. Here we have five cornerstones - the people structure, capital structure, data structure, product structure and ultimately the customer structure."
In further structural planning Entatech UK condensed its divisions from nine to four - PC Components & Gaming, Systems & Peripherals, Networking & Connected Home, and Retail & Software. "My vision with Entatech is to sharpen the focus and only compete in areas where we have a significant and demonstrable competence in the eyes of the customer," added Stevinson. "Our vision is where want to be and our mission is how we are going to get there. There are two areas where we see huge potential - the connected smart home and virtual reality for the PC gamer."
Dabs.com founder David Atherton shares Stevinson's vision and he joined Entatech as Chairman two months ago. Dabs.com was one of the earliest online retailers of IT equipment, growing from scratch to over £200 million revenue per annum. Atherton sold the business to BT in 2006. This key appointment followed the naming of Grant Thornton as auditors for the distributor in April. According to Stevinson the reputation of Grant Thornton signifies the improved governance and controls he's imposed on the business.
He says the company has come a long way since it was established in 1990 as an Anglo Taiwanese venture. Today, Entatech represents 70 brands in the UK, is 100 per cent trade only and has a base of 3,500 active resellers. Stevinson expects revenues to exceed £80 million this financial year and return to profitability following a period of decisive action that saw the entire board of directors changed. Alongside these developments Entatech has invested in new ERP and data analytics systems.
Stevinson is well qualified to drive organisational transformations and exhibited strong business and managerial skills early in his career. After graduating he joined the European branch of a Taiwanese IT company as sales executive while waiting to find a career in the City. "My initial plan was to be a stockbroker, but over time the company grew quickly and I became Managing Director, learning all of the skills needed to run a large company in the technology space," he commented.
Fast forward to today and Stevinson's current priority is focused on getting the people structure right. "We need to ensure that we have the right number and quality of people and that we have our aces in their places," he added. "Our challenge and opportunity is to be different from the big four competitors. So we are becoming more relevant to our clients and working smartly in niche sectors, using digital technology and advanced analytics as differentiators and accelerators.
"Another challenge is the lack of trade credit in our sector. We are addressing this by honing our product portfolio, reducing the cost base and improving efficiencies. These measures are augmented by our use of advanced data analytics across the company."•