Telecoms firm LDD Group calls shots as turnover set to surge

But LDD Group, which started life with just two phone lines, is set to see its turnover rise by 20 per cent over the next three years as it moves into the telecoms market.

From modest beginnings, the Leeds-based company, which is an IT reseller and telecoms company, has secured a string of high-profile contracts with companies such as Nike UK, the global sportswear giant.

In the last two years, LDD Group has grown its turnover by 22 per cent to £11.6m. The company is aiming to hit £15m turnover in the next three years.

It has 23 staff and hopes to hire more to meet demand.

Mandi Iles, the group sales director, said the company had established profitable long-term relationships with clients including the Shaw Trust, the national charity which works with employers, social services and disabled people. It also works with Symphony Group, the UK’s largest privately- owned manufacturer of fitted kitchen, bedroom and bathroom furniture and Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.

However, Ms Iles said the company had been through “difficult times” during its 19-year history.

LDD started life in the corner of a dairy warehouse in Seacroft, near Leeds, in 1993.

The two founders – Ian Sellars and Paul Hartley – had worked in sales at some of the region’s biggest computer and IT resellers. They decided it was time to go it alone.

Mr Hartley’s brother Ian, who owned Leeds & District Dairymen, agreed to invest in the business, and provided space in his warehouse.

Mr Sellars said: “We had a couple of phone lines and a corner of the warehouse. Our early days were spent surrounded by 30,000 boxes of cereal.

“We started out as a reseller – providing IT equipment and consumables – and secured our first contracts with previous clients The Burton Group and Ventura.

“By 1995 we had moved to premises on Seacroft trading estate and had a couple of telesales staff.

“We turned over more than £1.2m in 1994 in our second full year and we were growing quite rapidly.”

By the time Ms Iles arrived in August 1995, the team had grown to seven, and LDD was taking on bigger contracts.

It secured a £1m tender to provide printer hardware over two years to Edinburgh City Council in 1996.

During the dotcom boom, LDD decided not to sell online but to look at emerging technologies as a way of growing the business.

This led to the purchase, in December 2000, of the Birstall-based cabling company NETCare Europe.

LDD paid £1 for the business, taking on more than £100,000 of debt. Integrating the two companies proved to be harder than expected.

Ms Iles said: “It took us three to four years to integrate NETCare into the group which meant that in the first year after the acquisition LDD went from making a decent profit to a loss.

“It took a lot of work to turn things around and came at a time when a lot of businesses were going to the wall. There is no doubt that the loyalty of our staff and customers played a significant role in seeing us through that period.

“By 2003 and 2004 we began to see customers turning away from online suppliers and looking to traditional resellers again. While the internet offers great savings it cannot compete in terms of customer service.

“I believe every customer should be allowed to speak to somebody. It takes time to integrate staff. Most of the people here have been with us for between five and 15 years. We still couldn’t afford to be complacent so we brought in new technologies and services.”

Since 2001, the company’s turnover has grown by more than 49 per cent. In 2011, the management decided to diversify.

The company secured an exclusive deal to market Eye on Print – a print management tool that allows small businesses to monitor print usage.

LDD also plans to move into telecoms, allowing it to install, manage and maintain IT and telecoms services.

The company expects to strike a deal within the next few months which will see LDD move from being a telecoms dealer to a wholesaler.

Ms Iles said: “At a time when a lot of businesses were consolidating and just trying to survive we decided that it was the time to really push forward and offer an even more comprehensive service to our clients.

“We are ambitious and our financial growth in the last two years reflects that.”

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