The New Ingram

Baillie says resellers have been requesting that the company should not change anything. 'And that means attitude as well as structure. So the challenge is for us to continue with the same attitude and structure as we've had before - and the attitude is to treat everyone fairly and not get above ourselves,' he says.

'Tech Pac, we're not going to be a lot bigger than we were last year - we're going to increase by about 20 percent in terms of revenue.

'Resellers say just get on with it. We're not changing Tech Link for example, we'll have more products so it's better for the resellers - we'll be a better one-stop shop than we have in the past.

'[Vendors] have said I've got to be careful, "because if you don't deliver our targets we'll be considering our options".'

Tech Pacific also picks up a bunch of new vendors including Acer, Red Hat and Belkin as a result of the deal. 'They have Intel and Seagate - about seven OEM products, which we don't have. I've been trying to have more OEM products for years.'

Tech Pacific's business is split up in equal thirds between retail, small and large resellers. 'We're equally balanced between regional, small resellers, big state-based resellers and [retail] chains. We're the strongest in SMB, we're the strongest in retail and that's where all the activity is,' Baillie claims.

'None of the other distributors have spent much time in retail because they found it too hard, and when retail took off, we were there and they weren't. And SMB remains strong and that's where our success lies,' he says.

Baillie has been at Tech Pac in Australia for the past three years and joined at a time when the company was losing money. 'Last year was the most profitable this company has ever been in its history.'

On $1.5 billion in revenues here, the company recorded $30 million (EBIT). 'The first month I came here we lost $800,000 - that was three years ago. In 2001, this company lost heaps,' he says.

After his second month, the company lost $500,000 and Baillie resorted to the tactic of giving away the first $100,000 the company made equally to all staff members.
'The third month I announced to the staff I was giving the first $100,000 away and they all thought I was a bullshitter.

'In the third month, we made $100,000 and I divided $100,000 by 500 staff and gave it equally away. The person making the coffee got exactly the same profit share as the CEO. It was the most amazing thing I've ever done because everyone says, "Hey this guy's fair dinkum".

'And we've made money every month since. I got the morale right and told people that I would look after them if they did a good job.'