Annual sales at Swindon-based UTAX, the UK’s largest office equipment partner-only network, have climbed by more than 18% to £11.6m – its fourth consecutive year of double-digit growth.
The firm, based on the Shrivenham Hundred Business Park, said it had achieved the growth against a challenging, pan-European economic background and in a year when there had been far-reaching developments in its market.
UTAX has also grown its staff by more than a fifth over the past year with new employees in both partner marketing support and the technical team. 
Among key appointments was the arrival of Wade Lewis from Ricoh, who is tasked with developing a new dedicated IT distribution channel.
The UTAX product marketing team has been strengthened by the appointment of Maria Bretti as digital and social media executive and Sarah Caruso, who has joined from Motorola’s mobile division as product marketing executive with responsiblity for competitor and market research analysis.
The firm’s new technical manager for UTAX (South) is Alan Bracey, who was service transformation manager at Canon. He is helping UTAX’s national recruitment drive for three new direct service field technicians and a new service analyst to join the UK-wide team.
The head office accounts department is also expanding with the appointment of Sherri Hickey as financial credit controller.
UTAX (UK) managing director Shaun Wilkinson, pictured, said: “As I suggested last year, our principal aim in 2013 was to expand our support team and to continue to develop and produce solutions that meet the needs of our partners and their customers.
“Their feedback tells us that we have succeeded in accomplishing our objectives: we have strengthened our support teams and introduced new ranges of smaller, faster, greener and more economical machines supported by outstanding software solutions.
“Our focus in 2014-15 is to continue this drive with an increased focus on supporting our partners’ managed print services with a smart range of software solutions that provide both alpha-level security and accountability throughout an enterprise.”
