Roy's Monthly Gossip

Happy Easter

by Mark Rowe

Happy Easter everyone, and I hope that the Easter bunny comes and drops all her chocolate eggs in your garden.

Let’s look at what the gossip is this month and start with Nimans. Yep, seems that Midwich has agreed to acquire Nimans Limited and its subsidiaries from Nycomm Holdings Limited. You may recall last month they acquired 65 per cent of DVS. Nimans was founded in 1981 and was built based in the UK telephony hardware market. In recent years the business has expanded into voice over internet protocol (VOIP), more recently they stepped into security and networking systems. They employed Camilla Kirkham and of course Frankie to grow this business for them. In its latest audited financial statements, for the year ended December 2020, Nimans generated consolidated revenues of £114.3m. Completion is subject only to the regulator FCA’s approval and is expected in the first half of 2022. I am being told that the company will continue to trade independently, as are DVS; it seems that’s the way that Midwich like to run things. Seems however they are determined to become a large player in the security distribution market. Who’s next I wonder?

On to people now, and were you aware that Stuart Harris has left HIKVision to join Elmdene International as UK sales manager. I first met Stuart when he was at Sanyo; oh, so long ago, but he started in the business much like me as an engineer for Modern Alarms in 1985, and, like me moved into sales and has never looked back. Good luck Stuart, not that you need any.

Next up is John Gibson, pictured; who wanted his face on the front cover. I’m sorry, John, you may have got onto the Irish “first dates” programme where you attempted, really badly I should add, to serenade your blind date (if you have not seen this, it’s worth a laugh, just look at the videos on our website as it’s up there; you could have shaved John!). But our front cover was not available this month. Anyway John has left ADT and joined Electro Automation Ltd as their sales manager. Who are they? They are an Irish automation specialist. Formed in Dublin in 1984, Electro offers automatic doors,gates, car parking equipment, CCTV, integrated security systems and access control; and technical after-sales and maintenance. So now you know! I first met John when he was working for IC Realtime and based out of Guildford. He has always been a great supporter of our ST events so I will no doubt see you at the next one of these; meanwhile good luck John.

Let’s talk about Ian Compton whom you may know left HIKVision after four-plus years to go and work with Oosto formally AnyVision. It seems after just a brief five months he has left those guys and joined Arcules who are in the same stable as Axis and Milestone; owned by the Canon Group and built on Google Cloud. They say they are a passionate team of security and cloud experts on a mission to make surveillance systems easier and more flexible for a safer world. They say they are forward thinking, fast moving, and obsessed with solving your organisation’s problems in the simplest way possible. He is joining them as the sales director for the EMEA role and has a plan to build a team. I am sure we will be seeing a lot of Ian.

If you are into your social media you will know that Theo Cridge has moved and joined Smartwatch as their ops manager. I met Theo when he was just a mere boy working in the control room at Centro in Birmingham and I thought Theo had found his feet at Redditch Security but seems not and after teasing all his followers on Linkedin for a few weeks has announced he has joined Smartwatch. They began in 2006 and offer a single supplier for your security and property management needs. Seems they also have an in-house monitoring station which is manned 24 hours.

Lindy Jones has joined Oprema as Business Development Executive after 20 years at Norbain; wow, that was a long time, good luck Lindy.

Comelit-PAC has welcomed an additional Export Manager, to support its recently acquired PAC Access Control side. Steve Carroll joins (not to be confused with the Stephen Carroll who works with Data UK) in a newly formed role. Comelit-PAC now stresses it’s an all-encompassing provider of door entry, IP access control, CCTV and fire safety.

RISCO Group, has appointed Mark Taylor as UK and Ireland Managing Director; and Stephane Cochard as Global EVP Sales and Marketing. With over 30 years’ security industry experience and a previous spell leading the UK operation from 1991 to 2005, Mark has recently worked on the roll-out of the ECHO (Electronic Call Handling Operation) project, with the BSIA, FIA and FSA, combining call handling systems into one nationally recognised police response to emergency alarms. Stephane will be responsible for developing global strategic sales and marketing plans.

Abloy UK has appointed Ian Miller as Manager of its new Digital Access Solutions Academy, a purpose-built facility to showcase, install and test the company’s range of products, with particular focus on new digital solutions and ecosystems. So see you at the next ST22 event!

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