MANAGED SERVICES
Well planned diversification Stuart says Sharp UK’s transition from a £90 million managed print service company to the £150 million technology business it is today, has been a gradual, planned process of enlargement and diversification. “Once we had embedded Midshire, we moved on to how we could broaden our portfolio and our skill sets to move higher up the supply chain with clients. In 2018, I started looking for a managed service provider in the IT space, and found Complete I.T., a Southern-based IT services provider with six regional offices, £17 million in annual revenue and a great management team. We acquired them in 2019 and that was a real step change that took us from the managed print space into something much broader.” In 2022, Stuart brought Complete I.T. under Sharp’s branding, changing its name
We’ve grown the IT services business to around £30 million, around 23% of the business. The AV business is now around 18% of the business. And the workplace design business makes up the difference, around 4%.” Although Sharp UK’s workplace design business is a small part of overall revenue, it is reflective of Sharp’s joined up approach to technology and, as Stuart says, ‘a great driver for a company to transform with us’. “We design the modern workplace; we can fit out that workplace, because we have a legacy furniture business that we’ve turned into the workplace design business; we can fit all the technology that’s needed for collaboration; we can provide the IT infrastructure; we can look after it; and, of course, we can do the print.” What brings the different elements of Sharp’s offering together and where its value lies as a technology partner is summed up by the tagline ‘we help connect people and technology’. “Because technology is so complex, somebody not only has to make sure it’s the right tailored solution for a client, but also that people are connected to it, that they can use it and that it makes a difference to their daily work,” explains Stuart. “To make sure we connect people and technology, we consult with clients to really understand their business; we tailor the technology to their needs; we look after it with end-to-end support; and we make sure we secure our clients’ technology. Those four strands are at the heart of our technology partner proposition.”
to Sharp IT Services. This was followed in 2024 by a refresh of the Sharp brand across Europe, giving it a modern, youthful identity befitting a technology partner. Stuart highlights Sharp Corporation’s acquisition of the NEC display business – or rather the ending of the joint venture in 2025 – as another key moment in Sharp UK’s evolution. “NEC was one of the most renowned display businesses in the world and in 2020 Sharp took an initial 51% stake in the business for five years under a joint venture. Not too much could change during those five years, but in November 2025 the joint venture ended and we could really start to look at how we could change and grow that business.” April 1, 2026 is a key date both for the integration of the NEC business and for Sharp UK’s own structure. “The UK element of that business,
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