Ideal Hardware founders ease the reins

Ideal Hardware founders James Wickes and Kevin Harper are relinquishing hands-on management at the company. They are joining fellow directors Simon Barker (operations) and Simon Miesegas (finance) in Ideal's new holding company -- called InterX -- where they will focus on "business opportunities for the whole group". Day-to-day responsibilities at the storage distributor will be handled by a new operational board, staffed by the company's 12 most senior managers. Ideal -- or InterX -- as we must learn to call it, reorganised itself into three separate trading arms: product distributor Ideal Hardware; Ideal UniSolve, its consulting arm; and The IT Network. Ideal MD James Wickes said the restructure was intended to "unlock the value that we perceive exists within the company". He denied suggestions that the reorganisation was a prelude to hiving off non-core businesses. Neither, is the reorganisation intended to curry favour with investors, according to Wickes. "Our shareholders would see through that one immediately. They are not interested in stories. The only thing shareholders are interested in is our ability to do the numbers on the core business," he said. Ideal Hardware accounts for more than 80 per cent of group turnover. The IT Network, InterX's multimedia arm, is slated for a multi-million pound investment, and a massive relaunch early next year. ® Click for more stories