Tech Unlimited experienced a year of rapid growth in 2025, but it was down to a lot of hard work from the team and capitalising on the opportunities in the niche areas it operates in – and Tony Scully is confident that this growth can be built on in 2026.
In the UK, about 60% of small businesses fold within the first five years. For a company to make it past that marker deserves praise – even more so when it was established in 2020 during the COVID pandemic.
But to survive is one thing, to thrive is quite another – but that is what Tech Unlimited has done. After posting consistent growth ever since it was established, the figures rocketed in 2025 to 100% growth. This provided what chief executive Tony Scully – who founded the company alongside sales director Sunil Jina and commercial director Louis Dupigny – calls “a real turning point” for the business.
Tony says the company’s success was down to several factors, including winning a couple of major tenders, as well as some of its reseller customers being involved in big rollouts and new brands coming on board to expand the company’s product and customer base. “When it was added together, it resulted in this exceptional growth,” he says. “We had budgeted for 30%, but 2025 far exceeded our expectations.”
Another success – as well as a challenge – was establishing TU Europe in 2025. “We have recently won our first European order,” says Tony. “Last year, we decided that we wouldn’t let setting up TU Europe distract us from our core business, but at the same time, we wanted to set it up properly and enter 2026 with every form and box and numerous bits of red tape that you need ticked with a plan in place. That was a challenge, but we achieved our goal and now we can build on that this year.”
Tony is clear on another factor that has been key in Tech Unlimited’s success. “To do all this required a phenomenal amount of hard work and a little bit of luck,” he says. “But as the golfer Gary Player said, ‘the more I practise, the luckier I get’. Last year stretched us, it bent us out of shape, and we had to stop and think what we were doing and whether we could sustain it. But we are incredibly lucky to have the team we have. At times like this, you get to see how people react and the team got on board with everything we were doing and were excited about what was happening rather than thinking, ‘I wanted to have an easy month.’”
Subject experts
Tech Unlimited specialises in the education, healthcare, public and B2B spaces, and this was a conscious decision at the start, as Tony wanted the company to be experts in their subjects.
“We know what the expectations, demands and sales cycles are from our resellers and their end users,” says Tony. “We’re price driven, but we are experts too and aligned with their needs.”
Also, because Tech Unlimited is a relatively small company, it enables it to take a personalised and flexible approach to customers. “When we’re talking to our core customers, it is on a friend basis rather than a work basis,” Tony says. “We know their expectations and what they need.”
Tech Unlimited can also be responsive. “If someone rings us up and says, ‘We bought 50 keyboards from you and the customer said one’s gone wrong’ Our answer is that they’ll get a new one tomorrow. But this doesn’t happen very often.”
Another key to Tech Unlimited’s success is the support it has had from its brands. “On pre-day one, our model was based on bringing in brands that were product subject specialists, robust logistically and finance-wise and had pockets of success globally. We found that lots of these brands, when they were one of several hundred in a broadline distie would get zero love or attention from them – but we could give them that and help grow their sales in these markets.”
Success in tough markets
Tech Unlimited’s success has come in market conditions that are, overall, quite tough for many in the sector. As some operators in the sector have experienced trouble in the past 12 months, Tech Unlimited has been able to add brands to its portfolio as a result – although Tony notes that the company is selective, brands have to be the right fit – and these have helped the company grow its market share in its niches.
Looking forward, Tony remains optimistic about Tech Unlimited’s prospects, and the company is on top of emerging trends. For instance, there is the government-led direction on the use of mobile phones in education settings, and children increasingly having to put them in special pouches for the duration of the school day.
“For us, one of the key things is to make sure that we’re getting a good slice of the pie, and if possible, be ahead of the curve, and that something we put a lot of time and effort into over the last six months,” he says.
“For instance, the pouch not only needs to be secure, but it needs to stop a phone from sending a message to the child’s smartwatch too. There is a lot of money that is going to be spent in that space in the coming months and we have got the products in place in anticipation of that.”
VR headsets are another area set for growth. “It’s an interesting space that we want to get involved in,” says Tony. “I’m not sure whether the revenue for VR headsets will be there this year, but it’s an area we want to invest time and effort into for the future as we are confident demand will increase. Whereas the phone requirement, people are going to have to act quickly on that this year.”
With this, along with consistent demand in other product areas, Tony feels there is much for Tech Unlimited to be optimistic about as 2026 progresses. “But we always are on guard because you never know what can happen or what the market’s going to throw at you – we are prepared for anything,” he adds.
But as Tony said, with the company’s work ethic, Tech Unlimited is well set to continue the growth trajectory it has experienced since its establishment for some time to come.
