PWD Supplies enjoyed a successful 2025, growing sales in a tough market and topping it off with a win at the Stock in the Channel Awards – and the plan is for more of the same in 2026.
For PWD Supplies, 2025 was a year that contained plenty of challenges, especially with wider market trading conditions, but the company managed to record impressive growth, which helped the company to win an award at the recent Stockies. Here, PWD Supplies’ managing director, Daniel Wheway, talks about how the business flourished in 2025, and how he hopes to keep this up in 2026.
News in the Channel: Did the business face any challenges in 2025 and how were they overcome?
Daniel Wheway: Every business faces challenges, and there isn’t one that goes through a year without them. One of our main challenges was recruitment, particularly ensuring our team and systems could scale in line with the infrastructure of the business. To address this, we invested heavily in new systems that allow us to increase sales without having to significantly increase headcount.
While the wider market declined by around 30%, we appear to have bucked that trend. We grew by approximately 30% last year, which suggests that, rather than relying on market growth, we have taken market share from competitors. That’s a positive sign and shows that we’re doing something right.
Q: What were the biggest trends you saw from customers in 2025?
DW: There weren’t any single standout trends, but within education budgets – particularly on the IT side – we saw a lot of spend diverted towards Windows 11 upgrades. Many schools invested heavily in new laptops and PCs, which reduced available budget for other areas.
Furniture sales remained a stable area for us. While it did grow, its strength lies in reliability, repeat business and customer loyalty. It’s more service-led and less driven purely by price.
Q: How did customer demand change over the course of the year?
DW: In terms of what customers purchased, demand largely remained consistent. There are certain product areas that customers buy year in, year out. What did change, however, was customer expectation. Customers have become more demanding in what they expect from suppliers.
Fortunately for us, we have always put service first across our installation team, customer service, accounts and sales teams. The customer is at the forefront of what we do every day, as expectations across society continue to rise.
Q: What do you put your success down to in winning the reseller of the year award?
DW: Success is a big word, and I don’t think we’re ever truly ‘successful’ as a business – we’re always striving for more and looking to grow. That became very clear when attending the VIP Awards and seeing just how large and competitive the industry is, and where we still want to get to.
That said, in a very congested market, I do believe we’ve managed to stand out. The biggest reason for that is our people. In the past, we were guilty of a higher staff turnover, which affected stability, but that’s a challenge many businesses face. We now have a strong, stable team across the business, and that has made a huge difference.
Q: What is your assessment of the health of the channel currently?
DW: Channel sales feel broadly like recent years. As a business that’s been in the industry for around seven or eight years, I wouldn’t claim to have decades of perspective. However, what we do see clearly is that schools continue to spend, while expectations of suppliers continue to rise.
Resellers are expected to deliver on price, service and product value, and meeting those expectations is critical.
Q: What will be the main trends in 2026 for your business and the wider channel?
DW: We do have a clear business plan for 2026 and there are some new initiatives we’ll be introducing, but I can’t share too much just yet. Some things are best kept under wraps until the time is right.
Q: What are your plans for the future? What can customers expect in the next 12 months?
DW: More of the same – just bigger and better.
