SI Asia caught up with Sean Tobin, chief operating officer of Midwich Asia, a trade-only distributor and a part of the Midwich Group.
As one of Southeast Asia’s premier importers and distributors of audio, video and data distribution and display technology, the company was participating in InfoComm Asia for the second year.
“It has been busy with a good quality of visitors coming to meet us at our booth. Trade events like these are important for us to meet new customers,” said Tobin.
Midwich Asia was showcasing several brands, including Biamp, which the company recently signed up as the Southeast Asian distributor for the region.
Similarly, the company is also a distributor for Jupiter systems, as well as Brightsign, for which Midwich Asia provides technical support for products in Southeast Asia and Australia and New Zealand. A new vendor represented by Midwich in Southeast Asia includes LEDman, a Chinese LED OEM brand. Midwich was also showcasing B-Tech – the mounts and brackets manufacturer.
Midwich Asia is part of the Midwich group, a global company that had traditionally been a mergers and acquisition company buying up smaller companies for growth. However, Midwich Southeast Asia was the first start-up operation within the group that was established three years ago. “When we started, three years ago, we did not have any customers, partners and staff. Today we have 35 vendors and 12 staff, and the business continues to grow even through the pandemic. It has been an exciting part of the global strategy for the Midwich Group,” explained Tobin.
More vendors are approaching Midwich Asia to set up a more centralised distribution model to address a market that is maturing very quickly.
According to Tobin, Midwich Asia’s growth is coming from different sectors in various geographies. Hospitality and venues are major contributors to the growth of the region. Singapore, for example, despite it being a small market, has regular business renewals from the corporate sector, as it is in the Indonesian market. In markets like the Philippines and Vietnam, the education markets are growing significantly.
“Our value proposition is support which is critical to our vendors and our customers. We provide technical pre-sales and post-sales support. We have our own global help desk – “follow the sun”, 24 by 5 support – using the Mi Support offering.”
Midwich’s Mi Support is a unique value offering where customers can buy a Mi Support contract in addition to purchasing products which guarantees a direct replacement of products in the event of product failure. This ensures confidence in the product and post-sales support.
The company holds stock for customers in Singapore and provides credit facilities, leveraging its global infrastructure to support customers in Southeast Asia and in Asia Pacific. Midwich is looking to establish its position as a global distributor, supporting vendors who are looking for a trusted and proven partner to represent them, providing a breadth of engagement across the region in Asia Pacific.
