Awards Keynote Profile The winning formula of a successful UK manufacturer


Kevin Batley has been invited to present the Keynote Address As the CEO of Sahara plc and Clevertouch, Kevin is one of the most success- ful entrepreneurs in AV and responsible for technological paradigm shifts within key user groups.


Ask anyone in AV about the Bat- ley brothers; they’ll know exact- ly who you’re talking about. Not only are Kevin and Nigel Batley the muscle behind one of the largest audio-visual dis- tribution businesses in the UK, they are the brains behind many of the industry’s most fa- mous innovations.


This includes the Orange Projector in 2004 that was designed to combat projector thefts in schools, and most no- tably the world’s very first large format interactive touchscreen launched at BETT Show in 2009. Weighing in at 100 kilos


and costing £8,000 for a 65” Clevertouch interactive touch- screen, it was a risk, but a risk that the brothers instinctively believed was going to pay off. “No one was showing signs of developing a successor to the popular whiteboard and pro- jectors system of the day and, although there was no market for interactive touchscreens in education, given the growing popularity


of personal touch


devices we had a gut feeling that it wouldn’t be long before teachers and pupils would be demanding more”, says Kevin Batley, CEO of Clevertouch. Kevin and his brother Nigel have used those instincts to their advantage, skillfully steer- ing Clevertouch through the fast-changing world of AV tech- nology.


Futuresource cites the


Plus Series from Clevertouch as the number one selling in- teractive flat panel within edu- cation for the 4th year running in the UK. The London Stock Exchange 1000 Companies to Inspire Britain Report has fea- tured Sahara plc (Clevertouch’s parent company) for the past 3 years, and the company made the Sunday Times Profit Track 100, in 2016, 2017 and 2018.


Over the past 2 years, Kevin and Nigel have turned their at- tention to the Enterprise sector and overseas markets.


Kevin explains, “After rapid growth and leading the world in technology adoption, the UK education market has slowed over recent years with huge sector budget constraints – al- though sales have increased for the business by 28% between 2017 and 18, they are slowing down, and it was time to look for other opportunities in new sectors and markets.” It’s a strategy that’s already paying off. International sales grew by 107% in 2017, and the company leaped up the Sunday Times International Profit Track 200, from position 143 in 2016, 91 in 2017 and to 27th in the short space of just two years!


From small acorns


This entrepreneurial spirit and willingness to innovate and


recalls Kevin Batley. “At its peak the company employed 50-60 engineers dotted around the country servicing massive estates with engineers based at client sites, such as M&S in Baker Street, which operated 3,000 typewriters.” As an example of Terry’s en- trepreneurial instincts, he iden- tified an opportunity to sell in visual


planning boards and


T-Card systems to the compa- ny’s existing customer base. By 1976 the business was one of the leading UK suppliers. “I drove my car vast distances selling these planning boards,” says Kevin, who was a junior sale rep at the time.


By the early 1980s, crisis al- most hit! Its long-term custom- ers started switching to word processors. Typewriters and planning boards were out – the computer age had begun! Ex- press Typewriters had to trans- form itself almost overnight in order to stay in business. It was at this juncture in 1984 that the company secured the contract to become the UK dis- tributor for a Dutch manufac- turer of high-end whiteboards. It wasn’t long before external forces were once again at play, testing the mettle of the com- pany’s leadership, when the UK came out of the Exchange Rate Mechanism in 1992.


P6 AV News November 2018


for the education and corpo- rate markets when interactive whiteboards were the incum- bent technology. This is where the story of Clevertouch really begins.”


10 years of Clevertouch


“At its BETT launch in 2009, the company sold 100 pieces. The 2nd year we sold 400, by year three 1,000 and by the end of 2011 we could see quite clearly this was going in the right direction. We had no com- petition at this point. Nothing,” Kevin comments. Because


of this foresight,


Clevertouch was able to gain a foothold in the education sector before the bigger and more es- tablished technology manufac- turers had registered the mar- ket was shifting


Kevin continues, “One of the


over-riding principles of Clever- touch is to keep your ear to the ground. We listen to the people using our screens, we actively encourage their feedback, and then we act upon it. We know our competitors are constant- ly chasing at our heels, which means we must get it right. To stay ahead, our agile teach- er-led development strategy is what enables us to maintain our position as number one."


adapt to the changing times is not something that started with Nigel and Kevin. The company’s foundations go way back to 1924 when Albert Williams set up the Ex- press Typewriter Company. When Albert retired, he handed the reins over to his son Peter and a trusted colleague called Terry Batley, Kevin and Nigel’s father.


“My father always had an en- trepreneurial spirit and created different divisions within the company, whilst at the same retaining the core business,”


Kevin explains, “Sterling fell dramatically overnight and our costs to import from Holland suddenly went up by 20 per cent. So, we started to manu- facture, creating our own facili- ty in the UK for producing steel products – whiteboards, rail systems, a plethora of different products.”


Kevin continues, “As a manu- facturer, our main objective has always been to give end users complete solutions rather than boxed products. This gave rise to our next big idea, a range of interactive touchscreens


Clevertouch for business “Corporates


were slower


lock content and data from individual


devices, move it on


the uptake. Many had been burnt investing money in AV products only to find they nev- er used them. In the past, AV solutions were too complicated and there was no requirement or perceived benefit to step- ping over this barrier to entry by employees. Many were left to gather dust, expensive white elephants in the corner of the boardroom,” Kevin explains. “What’s changed is the growing demand from a younger gener- ation who expect seamless and uninterrupted communication regardless of whether they are working from home or they’re on the move. In 2015, Clev- ertouch launched Pro Series, the Enterprise touchscreen focusing on the needs of the corporate end user rather the same packaged product that’s sold into every market sector. One product does not fit all sectors.” Says Kevin. Clevertouch believes that en- abling employees to use col- laborative technology should be simple and uncomplicated for everyone. Shaun Marklew is the Chief Technologist at Clev- ertouch, and responsible for the development pathway the products take. “You as the user should decide how your technology works, not the technology dictating your path,” explains Shaun. “Un-


into a shared workspace so that everyone in the team can access it simultaneously, re- gardless of whether they are in an office or on the other side of the world. Operating plat- form, device or software is no longer the obstacle – in fact the tech and hardware should be completely irrelevant to participants.


It’s important


that technology enhances, not impedes, the free flow of ideas and the power of the collective mind.”


The future


Launching at ISE 2019, Clev- ertouch has created the all in one Enterprise ecosystem for the agile workplace. No need for additional requirements. A real-time collaborative work- space that enables partici- pants to work together, in an open environment, whilst en- suring that the collaboration systems and the underlying networks cure.


remain totally se-


Kevin will present his Key- note address at the AV News Awards 2019, at 8..30 on the morning of the fist day of the ISE 2019 exhibition at the RAI Amsterdam. The event is invitation only, but AV News has arranged video the event, for distribution later.


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