Since its launch at the start of 2012, Sihl Direct UK has gone from strength to strength. The company held its official UK press launch earlier this month which was hosted by senior executives from both Sihl GmbH and the recently established UK business unit.
During the event, Sihl Direct UK announced the launch of its new website – www.sihl-direct.co.uk – where customers can review and compare Sihl products online. The company also discussed its plans for the UK marketplace.
Heiner Kayser, managing director of Sihl GmbH, explained the reasoning behind the establishment of Sihl Direct UK as follows: “We have grown steadily and solidly and now provide media for most of the major printer manufacturers throughout the world. However, most of this work is under OEM agreements and in order to continue growing the company as we would like to, we needed to establish the Sihl brand to a wide consumer audience.”
Ian Turnbull, Sihl Direct’s UK operations director, added, “Our objective is to supply Sihl manufactured and branded media, in a timely and cost effective manner, through both selected partners and directly to the end user.”
At present, the UK office is unable to stock all of Sihl’s product range, so Turnbull is focusing on stocking the top sellers in the product range – equating to 80% of the UK turnover – in its Altrincham warehouse and sourcing additional media from Sihl’s other European manufacturing sites as required.
On ensuring that he has the right stock available, Ian explained, “We know that end users - and even some resellers - don’t want to be tying up much needed capital by stocking media. We will work with customers to ensure we hold what they need and can get it to them as soon as they need it.”
With regards to new additions and improvements to the existing Sihl product line, Kayser Heiner commented, “We manufacture the widest range of media to be found anywhere in the world and have an in-house research and development operation that is second to none. We are continuously working on enhancing existing products as well as bringing new products to market.”
Turnbull added, “The key to our business is that Sihl makes fantastic products that - time after time - work straight out of the box. There is no doubt about this and there are not many media manufacturers anywhere in the world that can make this claim with the same confidence.”
For more information, please visit www.sihl-direct.co.uk
[photo shows Sihl Direct UK's operations director, Ian Turnbull (L) and Sihl GmbH's managing director, Heiner Kayser (R)]
