AVNation special

A New Foundation for Starin with Tim Albright & Bobby Swartz

Earlier this year, Tim Albright (AVNation) and Bobby Swartz (Director at Starin) sat down for the AVNation Special podcast to discuss the recent changes at Starin. Starin joined Midwich Group in early 2020 and since then, Starin has navigated the acquisition, the global pandemic, internal developments and external partnerships.

One of Starin’s key objectives is to provide customers consistency and quality. That’s where Midwich comes into play. In February 2020, Starin officially joined the Midwich Group. Midwich provided Starin with an already established global network. In hindsight, the timing was ideal, as Bobby noted:

By joining the Midwich Group, Starin now provides over thirty different offerings with one common goal – serving the customers!

In 2021, Bobby Swartz decided to focus internally, re-organising the company. The emphasis was on the people of Starin and the question was ‘What do we do best?’. To offer more flexibility and consistency, Starin doubled their customer-facing employees and are planning to do the same in 2022. This allowed Starin to provide personalised detailed services and not only offer world leading brands, but also enhanced expertise.

Starin has built its reputation on UC ecosystems and the education sector. Understanding the shift to do better, the company decided to part ways with some brands that were not fitting within the new Starin. Bobby believes that it was mutually beneficial for both parties.

The future is centred around customers and growth – the core values of Starin and the Midwich Group. However, Bobby Swartz raised another important element – fun! Bobby emphasised the importance of ‘fun’ in the AV industry, expressing his excitement for the return of live events. The global pandemic has severed face-to-face communication, pushing us into the virtual world. From Bobby’s perspective, these live get-togethers are vital for creating long-lasting, durable relationships.

Starin has had a challenging but equally explosive, journey over the past couple of years. Joining the Midwich Group just before the global pandemic hit, re-organising internally and shifting focus to strengthen external partnerships – Starin is now the only distributor in the world that has all four biggest appliance manufacturers in UC. Alongside these major accomplishments, they were still able to focus on their expertise and value-add services.

“Partnering with the group of over thirty distributors was a powerful influence and provided a safety net”.