News

Tech Data changes its European organisation
2012-02-06
Tech Data Europe has unveiled changes to its European organisation which will enable it to optimise its efficiency whilst enhancing the support for its country operations. As a result of its acquisition strategy in Europe and the diversification of its distribution business, a new European Executive Board (EEB) has been formed to represent the company's technology areas and country and business operations. The EEB will drive the strategic direction of the company's European operations and ensure it takes advantage of the growth opportunities that exist in both its traditional IT business, its specialist divisions and its services. In addition, to provide greater focus and consistency in execution, the European country operations have been divided between two Regional Senior Vice Presidents. One will be led by Andy Gass who will be responsible for the following country operations: Belgium & Luxembourg, France, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom. The other will be led by Jonas Elmgren who will have responsibility for Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, Sweden and Switzerland. Both Regional Senior Vice Presidents will report into Néstor Cano, President, Europe. "The formation of an EEB and two regional operations will enable the company to be even more efficient and agile in its decision making at a strategic level, while allowing us to benefit from the strength and experience of country managers in their own markets," said Néstor Cano, President, Europe. "These changes are consistent with our major business goals and provide our country operations with the opportunity to take full advantage of the technology areas in which we operate, utilising our existing pan-European infrastructure and resources, whilst they focus on excellence in execution in sales and marketing to develop and grow our business."

The EEB members are:

• Néstor Cano, President, Europe
• Alain Amsellem, Senior Vice President, Finance & Business Operations
• Andy Gass, Regional Senior Vice President
• Henk Makaske, Senior Vice President, Triade (Consumer Electronics)
• Jonas Elmgren, Regional Senior Vice President
• Nimesh Davé, Senior Vice President Broadline & Processes
• Rod Millar, President Brightstar Tech Data (Mobility)
• Simon England, Senior Vice President, Value Added Business, responsible for Azlan (Enterprise), Datech (Design Software) and Maverick (Professional Audio Visual)
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Tech Data leaves Brasil
2011-12-19
Broadliner Tech Data has decided to close its Brasilian subsidiary. The closure is due to Brazil’s complex tax, legal and regulatory environments, which make it difficult for the distributor to generate a sufficient return on invested capital. The American broadliner will continue to do business with Brazilian resellers, but will handle those transactions as export business, through its Miami-based facilities. The closure will cost Tech Data between €15m and €18m in fourth quarter operating income, between €5.5m and €7m in foreign currency exchange losses and between €5.5m and €7m in taxes, after tax-deferred assets in Brazil are written off. Those numbers could push the company’s combined net losses on the closure up to €32m for the quarter.

Tech Data acquires Man and Machine
2011-10-05
Until now, the Autodesk business in Europe had two heavyweights : the German Man and Machine (which also has a reseller business) and TD Datech, the specialized division of Tech Data. It is now the past, as Tech Data has entered into an agreement to acquired the distribution business of Man and Machine for about €25m, about 1/3 of each paid on sales targets in the three next years. The conclusion of the deal, by the end of October, will be subject to the approval of the European Commission. After selling itd DACH distribution business to Tech Data in 2009, Man and Machine had distribution offices in Belgium, France, Italy, Poland, Romania and the United Kingdom, while TD Datech is present in France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Thus, Tech Data will strengthen its positions in France, Italy, Poland and the United Kingdom, mainly through the integration of more Autodesk manufacturing industry software in its offer. It should also gain TD Datech offices in Belgium and Romania. It is interesting to see that, if kept, Man and Machine Romania will be the first Tech Data office in this country.

After the sale, Man and Machine plans to focus on its VAR business, which it will continue to roll out from the DACH region to the remaining Europe in the near future. Any or all integration will be successful if Tech Data is able to deal with local geographic considerations. While there should be no problem in Belgium, Man and Machine offices are far from Tech Data offices in all the other countries. In Poland, Tech Data may chose to use Man and Machine offices in Łódź as a new regional office. But in France, Italy and the United Kingdom, the acquisition may very well lead to a loss of team, some of whose may not want to move to Tech Data's local premises and either stay with Man and Machine on its direct business, or leave the company altogether. Tech Data seems to have planned the challenge, as it just communicated on the integration of "an unspecified number of staff" and does not give out precise details on the subject.

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…

Tech Data distributes 3Dconnexion motion controllers
2011-05-10
Spain : following the example of its French sister company, broadliner Tech Data and its Autodesk-specialized BU TD-Datech has started the distribution of 3Dconnexion 3D mice/motion controllers. These devices are more particularly useful for the professionals of design.