Amy Stoneham talks to Stuart Thomson, managing director of CUK Group, about why the distributor is extending its focus into the custom installation market.
If you work in both the residential and commercial sectors, it’s very likely you have already had dealings with CUK Group. Having been operating in the commercial sector for over 17 years, the company has made its mark in the industry as a value-add distributor, ensuring it will do anything to support its customers through their commercial projects. A unique trait, CUK Group will assist with various stages of a project, including system design, demonstrations, acoustic modelling, site surveys, commissioning and programming assistance, attending meetings with customers and their clients, and more.
Building on its success in the commercial world, CUK Group is now extending its focus to the custom installation (CI) market. Over the last few years, and driven heavily by the pandemic, there has been a lot more crossover in the residential and commercial sectors.
Stuart Thomson, managing director of CUK Group, explains: “As we are seeing more of the technology and standards present in the commercial market transitioning into the residential sector, we are well placed to support integrators on their journey.”
With the increased crossover, it makes it much easier for the distributor to transfer skills, experience and knowledge into the residential space to help a new group of installers. “Dante is the perfect example,” adds Thomson. “In the commercial sector, we have been designing and supplying systems based around Dante for many years. But everywhere we turned at CEDIA Expo, we saw manufacturers launching products with Dante. Our long-standing experience with these technologies means we are well placed to support our growing residential customer base as commercial technologies emerge in the custom installation and residential space.”
Garvan Acoustics
It's not just technologies that are experiencing crossovers; CUK Group is also recognising that installers are diversifying their businesses for many reasons, including a possible recession in the year ahead. The talk of recession is leading many residential installers to take on commercial work, and as a well-established distributor in the commercial sector with a portfolio spanning 35 brands and experience in all areas of commercial applications, the company is in an ideal position to take the step into the residential market to help support these integrators to improve their solutions in the commercial space.
“We have been led by the trend of integrator diversification, with the same being true of manufacturers,” says Thomson. “While some remain 100% focused on the CI / residential space and have no interest in commercial, others now have products that span both. Some even see commercial as a significant growth area for them.
“That’s why now seems like the prime moment for CUK Group to focus on the sector, as we have so much to offer both the integrator and manufacturer. With a growing product portfolio and a growing understanding of the CI and residential market, what we have to offer is only set to become even stronger as we look to achieve a similar position in the CI space to the one we have established in commercial.”
The journey into the residential sector is only just beginning for CUK Group, and as such a vast market, the distributor aims to grow into it and expand offerings and solutions slowly. Therefore, its initial focus will be on whole-home and smart home solutions as this best fits CUK Group’s initial product offerings and current knowledge base.
Garvan Acoustics
Instead of building a demonstration facility for its customers, the company is taking the approach of bringing its products and solutions to its customers to demo and borrow, which also allows them to try the equipment in different real-life scenarios. It could also give the integrator’s clients a better idea of how it will fit into their home and work into their everyday life.
Thomson explains: “We view residential integrators in the same way that we do commercial. The integrator is the one with the end client relationship and interprets the end user’s wishes into solutions. The best solutions don’t always come from one place. So, by taking the products to the integrators, doing demonstrations and loaning equipment, we believe this will give us a better understanding of our customer’s businesses and this is key to place us in the optimal position to help them.”
That’s not to say a demo facility is always going to be off the cards. As the company builds more of its residential portfolio and learns more about how integrators work in the sector, it could find that setting up strategically located demonstration facilities will be a benefit. CUK Group is also not ruling out branching into new areas within the residential market, such as home cinema, once it becomes more established.
Building a portfolio of brands can take time but this process started many months ago for CUK Group thanks to established relationships with manufacturers in the CI and residential sector. While some brands have already been announced at shows like EI Live! in the UK, others will be revealed in the coming months.
Powersoft
“We are not in a rush from a portfolio perspective,” explains Thomson. “The key is to get the right products, solutions and partners, and we know from experience that this takes time. But we are already off to a very positive start.
“CEDIA Expo in Dallas also proved to be a great opportunity for us. Several manufacturers completely understood our plan and vision and had the same vision for the market. This will see further brands being added to our portfolio towards the end of 2022.”
As Thomson said, the key to success is having the right partners with products and solutions that make sense to CUK Group. It’s important to ensure a brand is the right fit for the company and its customers otherwise the relationship will not work.
“For a distributor doing things properly, adding brands is an expensive exercise with a 12-24 month return on investment,” Thomson adds. “Therefore, brands are selected with great care, based in part on the products, technologies and the benefits for our customers.
“The biggest factor though is the brand’s own story, its own ‘why’, and the people within the company. The reason for this is that when adding a new brand, we are entering into a long relationship with a manufacturer, so it has to be right for both parties, just as it has to be for the right reasons for both.”
Part of being a value-add distributor is recognising how to work with different partners and how strategies can vary when reaching customers. Getting to know a brand and its products is crucial in this sense to know how to market it to dealers and integrators. Having experienced this in its 17 years of commercial marketing, CUK Group understands this will also be the case for the residential sector and its approach will depend heavily on how the brand works, its requirements, strategies and challenges in the market.
Another consideration to this is that its not just installers coming into the residential market, manufacturers are also seeing use for their commercial products in the CI sector and are realising the new avenue for future products. Similarly, some brands are also completely new to the UK market and are looking to CUK Group to guide them.
“Some of the brands that are joining CUK Group are already present in the UK and Ireland,” Thomson highlights. “With those, we are paying close attention to what has gone before, the focus the manufacturer has, new products, and its performance in other geographical territories to plan our route forward.
“Other brands that are joining us on this journey are new to the UK and Ireland, so we lack the history and market feedback. With those, we focus in on the brand and its values, as these are key to a brand developing an identity within the market.”
A key organisation in the residential industry is CEDIA, and taking its entry into this market seriously, CUK Group has already become a CEDIA Member to help aid its success. “CEDIA was a very logical first step for us,” says Thomson. “When entering a new vertical, there can be a very steep learning curve. What better way to learn and improve than by joining CEDIA? Anything that helps us learn and improve so that we can better serve our growing residential installer base is a very good thing. Aside from our own development, the amount of work that CEDIA does as an organisation for the industry is outstanding, so supporting this makes total sense.”
Being a CEDIA Member also gives installers confidence in CUK Group as a value-add distributor in this new sector. Having an organisation like CEDIA behind it gives CUK Group more credibility and support to pass onto its customers in the CI market as it develops.
Another string to its bow which will support its customers is training. Utilising its facilities across the UK, training programmes will be set up for dealers at CUK Group’s headquarters just outside of Glasgow as well as its facility outside of York. There will also be regional training sessions to support dealers across the rest of the UK. Once the programme has been built, integrators will be able to book spaces through CUK Group’s website.
To get more information on CUK Group’s entry into the CI and residential market, visit www.cuk-group.com.