DISTRIBUTION SPECIAL PROFILES: CREATIVE DISTRIBUTION / INTERACTIVE IDEAS
CREATIVE DISTRIBUTION
With its own publishing arm, impressive growth and a wide range of products, Creative Distribution is stronger than ever. Commercial director Craig Lewis tells Dom Sacco about the business
CREATIVE Distribution supplies retailers with a huge assortment of games, consoles and accessories. But far from being just another distributor, the firm publishes its own games and has a stake in Reef Entertainment. It also offers next day delivery and recently increased its warehousing by around 50 per cent to establish additional growth. All of this has helped Creative to achieve record turnover of £68m in its latest fiscal year ending June 2010. And for this year the company hopes to introduces a warehouse management system, publish its first PS3 game and increase its DVD and Blu-ray offering.
“Having seen massive growth over the past few years, we are expanding
INTERACTIVE IDEAS
The award-winning distributor continues to grow in terms of revenue and staff. Marketing manager Andrew Miles tells Dom Sacco about its products and plans
WITH its impressive collection of boxed software and video game accessories, Interactive Ideas provides a complete service for both retailers and publishers. The supplier has achieved an average growth rate of 40 per cent over the past four years, and is on target to post another 40 per cent increase when its financial year comes to a close at the end of April.
It has also hired 12 new members of staff over the past year to boost sales and maintain service levels. “With this growth, along with our move just over a year ago to our new office and our ‘Specialist Distributor of the Year’ trophy at the PCR Awards 2010, it has been a very good year for us,” Interactive Ideas’ marketing manager Andrew Miles tells MCV.
34 March 4th 2011
“We have ambitious plans for the company and 2011 will see further employment opportunities created and expansion plans continued.” Interactive Ideas distributes a range of
“
wide selection of products we offer our customers and getting the right balance throughout our business is essential,” adds Miles. “All areas of our business play a vital part during the financial year.”
Accessories are an important part of our wide selection of products.
Andrew Miles, Interactive Ideas
games and accessories including Hubb, Turtle Beach and Thrustmaster peripherals – making them ideal for games retailers in search of margin makers. “Gaming accessories are an important part of the
As peripherals are boxed- only products, unlike games, they don’t have to compete with the download market. There will always be space for accessories at retail. “The High Street and digital distribution both complement each other and play a part in communicating to the consumer. With each new console that is released, new accessory designers emerge,” says Miles. “We haven't seen any negative impact in our business so far and our sales of physical software and peripherals are up year- on-year.”
both the services we offer and also expanding the product range to keep our existing customers satisfied and to attract new ones,” says Creative’s commercial director Craig Lewis.
“
Lewis adds: “Having a publishing company allows us to understand and become a part of another area of the video gaming industry. This is important to ensure we constantly grow and adapt to move with the times.”
Having a publishing
company allows us to constantly
grow and adapt. Craig Lewis,
Creative Distribution
Creative’s first published game is Real Heroes: Firefighterwhich hit stores last year on Wii. It followed this up by distributing the Reef-published game Sniper Elite, which has sold around 100,000 units to date.
The firm is also aiming high in years to come by increasing its product offering even further. “Expansion is our goal this
year,” says Lewis. “We aim to become an entertainment distributor able to offer a wide range of products and solutions in years to come. “We’ve dabbled in DVD and Blu-ray products before, but we are taking this more seriously in 2011. We are also taking on new members of staff to expand our in-house knowledge and grow as quickly as possible in these areas.”
INFO
Established: June 2003 Members of staff: 45 Based: Croydon, Surrey Key territories: UK, Europe Contact: 020 8664 3456 Website:
www.creative
distribution.co.uk
INFO
Established: 1994 Members of staff: 54 Based: Enfield Key territories: UK, EMEA Contact: 020 8805 1000 Website:
www.interactiveideas.com www.mcvuk.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84