Renaissance Brands’ general manager, Mark Dasent, explains changes the company has undergone, how they affect the channel, and what they can offer you today.

When I joined Renaissance in 2000 the company was in the midst of a number of changes. Perhaps the most obvious result of these was the establishment of Renaissance Brands as a new business unit with a radically new business model. Our decision to cease distribution of a large number of major brands caused a degree of uncertainty for the channel and for staff. Since then the re-building as Renaissance Brands has been challenging and exciting - and ultimately rewarding to see where we are today.

While there’s still room for improvement in some areas it’s great to now have a structure that supports our channel partners and vendors to derive maximum value for all.

So what is Renaissance Brands all about?

In a nutshell our mission is to represent our vendors and be their “feet on the ground” as if we were their local office. In other words a vendor can allow Renaissance Brands to manage all of its marketing and channel development needs. Likewise for service, pre- and post-sales support and training.

In fact given the depth of our local market knowledge and customer relationships it is our preference to handle everything. We offer better value and can deliver better results if given the scope to do so.

The difference between this model and the old model is this is far more rewarding and enjoyable than shifting boxes. Margins for resellers - and us - are constantly being squeezed.

Our preference to add genuine value to the brands rather than simply providing logistics services is clearly the best way forward for the vendor, the channel and ultimately the end user.

We devise and implement marketing campaigns and initiatives as well as nurture the market in collaboration with those channel partners best positioned to contribute to and leverage the products’ opportunities.

This is the cool stuff that sometimes requires off-the-wall thinking.

Many of the brands we represent are relatively complex and require a fair degree of technical expertise. This is also what we enjoy being involved in.

For example, part of our business has a specialist focus in the networking and security segment. Renaissance Brands’ success with SonicWALL since bringing this on in 2001 has been fantastic: 56% market share in the integrated security appliance market segment is outstanding and is a true testament to our business model. We’ve been able to invest time and resources to build the brand awareness and develop strong channel partnerships.

We’re achieving our goal of bringing the reseller closer to the vendor to help the channel maximise the opportunities for themselves and for our vendors.

As this new business model has matured over the last few years we’re now able to apply it to more mainstream brands, hence our recent addition of Canon. As a result of this success and expansion we encourage resellers who may not have dealt with Renaissance Brands for a while to have another look at what we have to offer.