Profile Medium celebrates 25 years


With the national press obsessing about the trans-European market, the importance of globalisation and M&A at an all-time high in tech- nology markets, it’s easy to forget that some extremely successful businesses have been created in the UK market, and focussed on providing customers and suppliers with very best experiences. Medi- um has been for 25 years, and celebrates its anniversary this month.


Ironically, the Medium concept had its origins in founder Ian Sempers’ experience in Germa- ny. Sempers graduated in 1989, wanting to work in Germany and experience life outside the UK. Fortunately, he received an op- portune offer of work, via a fel- low student, whose father was involved in the AV business: “David Bussell was the ‘B’ in the UK AV distribution company, GB International. I studied with his son Julian. One day, on the golf course, Julian and I were discussing career opportunities. I mentioned my aspirations to work in Germany. He told me his father had international connec- tions, so I sent him a copy of my CV. He brokered an interview for me with Reinhold Imdahl, the founder of Medium GmbH. I flew over to meet him and decided that buying and selling cocoa as commodities broker (my original career plan) was a poor second to flying, on my second day, to Scandinavia to meet customers and visit a trade fair.” “To this day, I wonder if David would have set this up if he had known that I would eventually become one of his chief compet- itors!”


Early days Medium Germany was a man-


ufacturer and distributor of AV equipment and at that time best known for high quality OHPs. After a year and a half of suc- cessfully developing business in Scandinavia, Benelux and the US, the UK company was formed in August 1991.


Initially working out of a friend’s father’s office, in Milton Keynes, I started selling OHPs, and ac- cessory items, to the trade. Even though setting up a business at the height of the 1991 recession (remember sterling


falling out


of the old ERM in 1992) wasn’t necessarily the wisest course of action, Medium had developed a unique OHP product range, which provided the basis for the company to establish itself. The Medium 5000 and 10k OHPs had a patented condenser lens design, which managed to con- centrate the light from the OHP onto the window of the LCD pan- el and push up brightness levels considerably.


Sempers continues the story: “Often the simplest ideas are the most effective and this was the case with these two products. I can remember convincing cus- tomers, who I had never met be- fore, to switch their entire sales forces to specifying the Medium OHPs, regardless of the brand of LCD panel that they were selling.”


Accelerating growth


In 1993, the company moved to its own offices in Newport Pag- nell. This initial growth allowed Medium to build up staffing lev- els and increase its vendor port- folio. By this time the product set had changed dramatically, away from OHPS, towards dig- ital projection panels - albeit initially at very low light output levels and low resolutions. New


very much collaborating with lo- cal suppliers, as opposed to pur- chasing large volumes through Medium in Germany. Equally strong customer relationships had been forged and the compa- ny had become independent from its German founders, as well as extremely profitable.


Ian Sempers, founder of Medium UK, has built the business with a mission to: “supply the industry with best of breed product solu- tions, selection and knowledge, with exceptional customer ser- vice….and a smile.”


arrivals in the Sempers’ Rich- mond household prompted a re- location of the business to West London. This gave the company access to a large customer base and talent pool, which saw Me- dium produce sustained growth through the late 1990s and into the early ‘Noughties’.


By this time, Medium UK was


In late 2004, Sempers pur- chased the entire share capital of the UK business, through his Odysseus Holdings company. The German shareholders real- ised a multi-million pound return on their initial loan of 10,000 Deutsch Marks (around £3k). “I could have simply left the UK company and set up as a new, competing venture the next day,” explains Sempers “The most im- portant suppliers and customers would have come with me, but I felt a strong sense of commitment to see things through in the ‘right’ way. After all, they had given me the opportunity, and taken a risk, when I was just out of University’. From the turn of the new millen- nium, Medium has seen a num- ber of landmark events. The com- pany benefitted from the BECTA contract and were instrumental in Hitachi developing the ED3200 range (one of the top selling pro- jectors during the BECTA period) in 2005. Revenues climbed in 2006 from £12m to £18m, with virtually no increases in costs. Medium became Hitachi’s largest European distribution partner for many years.


Post-BECTA When BECTA was disbanded,


NOW AVAILABLE FROM


www.medium.co.uk www.conXeasy.com


Medium understood that it need- ed to look for new product devel- opment areas.


Digital signage


and video conferencing were identified as targets. In 2007, Medium successfully launched, with Samsung, MagicInfo digital signage solutions. The following year, Medium purchased Beyon- dis Ltd - a distributor of the Life- size video conferencing range. The digital signage division has continued to grow from strength- to-strength. Lifesize took a deci- sion in 2012 to withdraw from AV Distribution in favour of alter- native channels.


At this point, Medium was still trading well, and on a profitable basis, but it was clear that other competitors were growing more quickly. The business under- went some significant personnel changes and a new director, Pe- ter Dosanjh, was appointed. In 2012 the company was awarded exclusive UK and Ire- land distribution rights for the C-TOUCH interactive flat panel range, Medium has taken the product range to become one of


the most effective and success- ful brands in this market. Rev- enues have doubled and PBT has increased in a linear fashion over the past 3 years. The com- pany is now striving to achieve a £50m revenue position within the next 24 months.


Over the last 25 years, Me- dium has built a business that supports over 700 Reseller and retailers in the UK, by proactive- ly marketing, demonstrating and advising on product suitability for installations across multiple industry


sectors. Having won


multiple Awards for its custom- er centric approach to sales and support, Medium continually demonstrates growth by extend- ing its portfolio to offer every ele- ment for a seamless installation. Medium is currently looking for new freehold premises to main- tain this growth and launch new areas of business for the next 25 years.


Celebrating 25 years in the business. That’s the long and short of it.


The AV industry has come a long way since 1991, and Medium has played a big part. Today we’re one of the leading distributors of interactive and large format displays, projection, digital signage, connectivity, brackets and accessories. Here’s to the next 25 years.


Come and join the party! 020 8813 5777 • sales@medium.co.uk • medium.co.uk A big thank you to all our customers and partners:


SEADA Showing the World


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