News

Distributors lose industry share in 2011
2011-08-31
According to the last Canalys report, the growth of the distributors does not match those of the rest of the industry. The Canalys IT Industry major vendor (Apple, Cisco, Dell, EMC, Google, HP, IBM, Intel, Lexmark, Oracle, Microsoft and SAP) grew revenue 18% worldwide on average in the first quarter of 2011. In comparison, the big four distributors (Arrow ECS, Avnet TS, Ingram Micro and Tech Data) managed 11%, with many smaller distributors faring worse than this. Distributors have blamed recent disappointing results on excess inventory, poor retail demand, sluggish sell-out and weakening economies. They have comforted themselves by making peer group comparisons where sales-out data shows "we are performing as well as the others, so please blame the market for our results, not us!" And while these reasons are valid justifications, Canalys argues that distributors need to see the bigger picture and realize that for the first time in a decade industry trends are conspiring against them.

According to the report, distribution thrived for the last 10 years thanks to rapid notebook and netbook adoption and the virtualization of the server room, with two-tier distribution at the heart of the routes-to-market for both B2B and B2C vendors. But the growth drivers of the industry have now changed. Mobility is still booming, but now on the back of smaller devices, notably smart phones and pads, which are more and more sold either directly or through service providers. The server and storage markets are healthy, driven by data center activity and cloud applications. On top of these industry changes, the world economic growth is mainly coming from economies beyond Western Europe and the US, where the top 4 distributors are at best weak, at worse absent (MEA, Russia, Japan, etc.) : in these countries, local distributors will outgrow them, with already some local giants like Merlion in Russia for example. All of these factors combined are set to cause headaches for distributor executives for at least the next two years. The report concludes with a list of recommandations for the distributors to follow, if they wish their growth to match the industry, one of which is to go East as soon as possible…

Avnet Technology Solutions appoints Serrano VP Finance
2011-08-16
Multispecialist Avnet Technology Solutions has named Cookie Serrano as vice president of finance, Avnet Technology Solutions, Americas. Serrano joins Avnet with more than 20 years of experience in the finance and accounting fields, having worked for companies such as Goodrich, Motorola and US Foodservice in various financial management positions. Serrano reports to Rusty Murdaugh, group finance officer, Avnet Technology Solutions, Global. As vice president of finance, Serrano will manage the finance teams that support Avnet Technology Solutions in the US and Canada. Her leadership skills and financial experience will be applied to improving business practices and managing specific areas of accounting and finance such as planning and forecasting, as well as internal controls and compliance.

Avnet digitilizes documents with eCopy
2009-01-30
Multi-specialist Avnet has expanded its partnership with Document Imaging vendor eCopy, which was previously limited to the United Kingdom, to more European countries. Namely, resellers in Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden and the Netherlands, and will from now on able to sell eCopy products purchased through Avnet local offices.

Avnet loses its country manager
2009-01-14
Denmark : not long after Avnet decided to drop its hardware business in the country, Folke Ørsted Hansen, who was local sales manager, has decided to leave the company. He is now working for reseller EDB as sales manager for web solutions (source : Computer Reseller News Danmark).

Avnet reviews its positioning
2008-12-02
Danmark : after having being created to host IBM and HP infrastructure activity purchased from Magirus, Avnet Denmark has fully reviewed its positioning in the country : the distributor has quietly dropped IBM hardware and HP products, keeping only IBM Software as value-added offer. Most of its other vendors are high-end components vendors (like Supermicro, Tyan or AMCC/3Ware), aimed at resellers who wish to propose their clients on-measure servers or workstations.