A personal security service

INTERVIEW

A personal distribution service

This year distributor G-TEC is celebrating its 20th Anniversary so PSI caught up with Director Sam Cherri at the Hounslow premises to find out about the ethos behind the company he began back in 2002

How has business been for you recently? This year started very well, we've experienced a couple of months where I would describe it as being steady, rather than busy, but I think that’s been due to hesitancy because of inflation. Perhaps the end users who are looking to start projects have just held back a little, but it is definitely picking up again as we have seen growth in the last month and a half. Funnily enough, even though we “lost” the last couple of years due to the pandemic, it hasn't really appeared to affect the business in the long term. I always consider security as a necessity in bad times and a luxury in good times! On the scale of things, I’d say we've done very well and the signs are very promising.

When it comes to sales have you seen any trends? We sell intruder, video entry, CCTV and shortly will be supplying fire safety systems, but for me the biggest change in technology buying patterns has been with CCTV as more and more people are moving towards IP – but only when they can. The factor here is price, because installers need to make a sale and even though people have been saying for years that IP is going to take over and analogue HD is only a temporary stop gap, we've all been surprised at how long it has lasted in the market and that manufactures are still developing it. So I don't think analogue HD is going away anytime soon but eventually the sector will turn fully to IP even though IP is actually getting more and more expensive as new cameras have increased functionality such as AI and analytics built-in.

You've got a brand called Serage in your portfolio, is that your own range? We're a wholesaler of Hikvision and have been for four years, but we do have our own brand in Serage which has been around now for over ten years and is really popular with our customers.

Sam Cherri

Presumably having your own brand is a big investment, why did you choose to do that? We invested in Serage before some of the big brands we have today came into the UK market and in those days many distributors had their own ranges. The difference for us is that subsequently most people dropped their ownbrand products or reduced the focus on it when they signed up with the big names, but we didn't drop ours. It was so well respected that we kept going with it and we will continue to do so because G-TEC is the home of Serage!

How do you make people aware of a brand they may not know? The people who use Serage, and have done so over the years, are a very loyal customer base because they've worked with it and seen the product in action and know what it can do. In the last three or four years our focus with Serage has been more with direct marketing and workshops, however all in all I think selling a big brand and having an own-brand range of products goes hand-in-hand and works well for both of them. “I always consider security as a necessity in bad times and a luxury in good times! On the scale of things, I’d say we've done very well and the signs are very promising”

INTERVIEW

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You started the business in 2002. Why, were you an installer? A lot of people, particularly my wife, have asked me that and at the time everybody thought I was crazy! I used to work as an international sales manager for an American company and while I've always had it in me to start my own business, getting into the security industry was more of an accident. I left the video conferencing company and did a deal with them to take on the London area with their technology. Two weeks later, they changed management and the new team decided I couldn’t continue with that deal, so I was without a job. I then met someone who introduced me to CCTV and I did some installation work for a year and a half and then started doing distribution on my own in a very, very small scale starting from my bedroom, then moving to bigger offices as required.

What were your goals in the early days –have they changed? People always ask me how I managed to grow a successful company without taking money from banks and without any savings and I believe that the key was to look after the existing customers properly rather than worrying about gaining new ones and to always think in the long-term. I established G-TEC to sell solely to installers or to sub distribution, not to end users, and I tell everybody in the company that we are all in sales, even if you are the receptionist. If you are not giving a good service on all fronts the customer will go somewhere else and that's always been my belief, even from when I was on my own. Everybody here, especially the salespeople or people in technical have got to feel that they work for the customer but G-TEC pays their wages.

In addition to technology, what do installers tell you they want? The main request is for product knowledge. Installers want to know what the technology can do and if it can do something beyond what they are already using it for. Our training academy is always really busy and we use that facility to introduce new products and practices to installers and to people connected vertically with the industry such as electricians wanting to move into fitting CCTV on a professional level. We’ve had plenty of people undertake a course, who then end up being customers as a result, which is great because they will take that product knowledge out into the market and push it to their customers. For example at the moment we are doing a lot of training with Fermax systems and have been oversubscribed for those sessions.

Is there anything different about G-TEC? I always say if you are going to be successful you have to think that your competitor is at least as good as you, if not better. What's unique about us is that we don't have account numbers or need product codes; we deal with people on a personal level with a range of products we know very well. We know all of our customers personally and we engage with them in a way that is not just as a business transaction. Obviously we keep everything very professional,

“What's unique about us is that we don't have account numbers or need product codes; we deal with people on a personal level with a range of products we know very well”

but our business runs on relationships. We're like a small family distribution company that sells all over the UK and all of our communication and engagement with customers is genuine - I don’t employ people who are like robots with customers!

Another key point is that you won’t find any pricing online for Serage technology. Yes, you’ll be able to see the products online, but there are no costs listed on the internet. If an installer buys Serage from us, they can do so knowing that their customer will not be able to find out how much it was - that is a very strict policy we have had right from the beginning.

Is there one piece of advice that Sam of 2020 would give Sam of 2002? I'd say “Trust in what you think more” as there are times when you listen to others too much just because you think they are more experienced than you are and so often it turns out that what you were thinking was right all along. Believe in yourself and your own choices more.

Where do you think the market will go in the future? I’m actually very optimistic for installers because I think the trend going forward will be for people to rely more on professional installers especially as technology is increasingly involving AI. Thanks to the internet people have been able to buy a security system for themselves and, because they do some DIY, assume that they will be able to fit it. What tended to happen was they either bought the kit and then it sat in the corner for six months or if they are a bit of a geek they set it up at its most basic level to get notifications on their smartphone for example and then realised it wasn’t really fit for purpose. That is not going to happen in the future because systems are becoming more advanced and will need technical knowledge in order to set up functions such as the AI and the analytics – systems are not “plug and play” anymore. So I'm very optimistic that advances in technology will mean installers will only get busier in the future. “I’m actually very optimistic for installers because I think the trend going forward will be for people to rely more on professional installers”