Press release
19th January 2010, Lenham, Kent: Simms International plc this month celebrates its 20 year anniversary as a specialist memory distributor.
Simms is privately owned by founder Andrew Henderson who originally came from a farming background. The company was formed in 1990 above an Italian restaurant in Upper Street, London, when by luck; an opportunity presented itself to promote memory solutions to people attending a trade show at the Design Centre.
In the first year of trading Simms was predominately an Apple focused business and turned over £500K. Today Simms has grown to become a leading IT distributor and developed strong partnerships with world-class vendors.
Andrew Henderson reflects back on the past 20 years and said "I am extremely proud to be celebrating 20 years in business and I strongly believe the success is down to the industry knowledge we had from the start. I realised early on looking after your people and building strong relationships with your vendors means you are in great shape to support your customers.
From our first trading year we soon learnt that we needed a quality brand to offer resellers installation and technical support. In late 1990 we formed a relationship with Kingston, as I was impressed by their great products, common business ethic and values". To this day Simms remains Kingston's No.1 distributor in the UK.
1995 saw the opening of Simms Australia which later forged relationships with key vendors like Apple and Kingston to create and independent force down under. The Simms Group has developed further this year, expanding into the New Zealand market place.
The three businesses share the same vision to be the leading partner for its vendors and resellers in their local market.
In 2004 Simms moved from Wandsworth, London to Lenham, Kent where they still operate today.
2008 was the year in which Simms expanded its vendor portfolio taking on IronKey, Transcend and Patriot.
Also in 2008 Simms UK acquired Jactron Ltd which trades as the Industrial division, who supply industrial grade solutions to various vertical markets such as Defence & Aerospace.
Simms attended the 2008 Microscope ACES Awards and was awarded ‘highly commended' in the ‘specialist distributor of the year' category.
People
Simms is renowned for its high standards of service, commitment and focus. The success is down to its team of hardworking people who are dedicated and care about building long term relationships with vendors and customers. Andrew said "We operate as an extension of our vendors and remain passionate about specialist memory. We constantly seek creative ways to generate new opportunities for our channel partners. We are also ISO9001 and Investors in People accredited".
Looking to the future Simms's mission is to be the number one partner for its key vendors and number one distributor for resellers.
This year kicks off with a brand facelift to mark the 20th anniversary with plans to grow the business further with key vendors. Phil Pace, Sales Director said "Our reseller network will benefit from Simms sales, marketing and technical support as well as logistic expertise's".
