Brother UK boasts growth in Auto-ID business as partners seek 'full suite of specialist solutions'

The growth follows the launch of a range of new solutions to support businesses across retail and transport and logistics

Brother UK says channel partners are demanding a "full suite of specialist solutions" as it posted record sales for its Auto ID and labelling solutions.

The print vendor saw a 53 per cent year-on-year increase in Auto-ID and labelling solutions revenue in the last financial year as unit sales surged by 65 per cent over the period.

The growth follows the launch of a range of new solutions to support businesses across retail, transport and logistics.

These include adding four new models to its heavy-duty industrial TJ range and two new models to the mobile RJ range.

Brother believes the increase was primarily driven by reseller demand for specialist thermal labelling devices, with the firm seeing a five-fold year-on-year rise in sales for its industrial TJ range and its smaller TD range of desktop label printers.

Ged Cairns, head of SPS business category at Brother UK, said: "The warehousing and logistics sector has needed to move rapidly to keep up with eCommerce's continued growth.

"This shift in the market has resulted in record levels of spending on expanding warehouses and kitting out new spaces, which is where resellers have seized the opportunity."

Brother has established strategic partnerships with a variety of Auto-ID and labelling specialists, including Datalogic, BlueStar and NiceLabel, to further bolster end-to-end support for resellers serving the market, including Renovotec.

Cairns added that channel partners are "demanding a full suite of specialist solutions to better support their customers".

"The growth that our division has posted this year highlights the opportunity available for channel partners and where the Auto-ID market is headed," he said.

"The need to improve elements of the supply chain to boost speed and productivity isn't going away - particularly during the pinch that firms are feeling at the moment - and resellers have an opportunity to add value to customers and expand their revenue streams.

"To that end, we're going to continue establishing new partnerships, introducing new solutions and building out our team to better support our channel partners."