Новости

Distree grows on retailers
2012-02-17
More than 1000 people gathered in Monaco last week for the 10th edition of Distree EMEA channel event. This new edition broke all records, with more than 5300 pre-arranged meetings between on one side 125 vendors and, on the other side, 400 distributors and about 100 retailers and etailers for a global turnover of almost $50B. Everything could have been distrubed by the snow or the strikes in French airports: "if a few distributors have been blocked by snow in their country, the strike blocked no-one. We have registered a few late arrivals on the first day of the event, for a lower global cancelation rate than any previous year", says Farouk Hemraj, the CEO of Distree Event.

Compared to the previous years, this edition show a higher number of visiting etailers and retailers, and a decrease in the number of invited distributors: "our exhibitors wish to meet more retailers, as there are no event like French Medpi in most European countries. On the middle term, we plan a 50-50 split between retailers and distributors", explains Farouk Hemraj who cannot, for sleeping capacity reasons keep the same number of invited distributors, despite a high demand from them. Because of that, Farouk plans to invite next year about 300 distributors and about 200 retailers and etailers.

We have noticed this year a higher number of distributors exhibiting. These find in Distree a good way to attack neighbouring markets or to push their own brands, which can be a good way to counter the crisis. Among them, French broadliner MCA, who owns H&B and Sega gaming console brands, was more specifically targeting French speaking Africa and Maghreb, thanks to partnerships with HP and Toshiba. Lithuanian Acme, French mobility specialist Ascendeo or Polish companies Impakt et Modecom were also among the other distributors to exhibit in this edition. Distree is by the way considered more and more as an important event to help companies to export, and several countries, like Poland, allocate a financial help to their national companies to allow them to exhibit there. It is funny to notice that French UbiFrance does not help French companies exhibiting on Distree, stating that the event is in France and thus "cannot be considered as an investment for export". It is obvious that they never visited it, just to see how wrong they are.

Like every year, Distree is an important occasion to discover innovative products, which are seldom visible in traditional events. Russian company Lomond has for example launched there the first 60ppm color inkjet printer on Memjet technology base. This model, which targets the B2B market, should definitely shake up the laser market, at least as soon as an MFP is available, within the next months. It is immediately available through a few distributors in Europe, like Tekaef in Germany, Denco and Resource Media in Russia and through multiple small structures, half way between resellers, service provider and distributors. It should without doubt find its way through other major distributors in the coming months. The Boogie Board LCD writing tablet from American vendor Improv Electronics, which is available in France though Avesta and SCP Technology, in Germany through NTP or in the UK through GEM or, again, NTP, aims to replace paper or chalk at school, with a much lower TCO than these traditional solutions. The UPS from Turkish vendor Tuncmatik bring the signal of a return of design in this market, after the bankrupcy of the few Italian vendors who bet on this, some years ago. Taiwanese vendor Choicee was exhibiting USB keys and cases for mobile phones and tablets under Ed Hardy, QEE or Lady Gaga licences. Dutch vendor Gembird was showcasing the first epaper printer, under its Energenie brand. Used as a printer, it sends any document on an ebook, where it can be viewed and annotated, before being download back on the PC as a certified PDF. Finally, the i-FlashDrive of taiwanese vendor PhotoFast has won the "60 seconds to convince" award. It is true that this addon for Apple mobile devices is a needed answer to a crucial need: it allows users to transfer on USB key and back any document from the Apple device (music, video, book, picture), without the need of any computer. It is already available through some distributors like Comeback in France since a few weeks, and should find its way in other countries very soon. Its only drawback is its price, from 75€ (8Gb) to 145€ (32Gb) which is a bit high for a true broad success.

Questioned about the growing competition of ERS (European Retail Summit) event, whose second edition is organized in May in Budapest by Levin Consulting, Farouk Hemraj keeps confident with Distree's success: "for this kind of event, it is utterly important to have an important number of exhibitors, which helps to attract more visitors. On this point of view, ERS is still far behind Distree, albeit it is a competitor we will keep an eye on."

Distree has built on its EMEA success to enter last year on the Latin-American market, with a first successful Distree LATAM in Brasil a few months ago: "we gathered about 50 exhibitors who entered with us on this new territory, including Intel, Microsoft or many French vendors like Port, Infosec, Dane-Elec or Urban Factory. 200 visitors (about 2/3 of distributors and 1/3 of retailers) have been invited. The exhibitors have shown no regret, as some of them have immediately signed first distribution partnership in this region", adds Farouk Hemraj who already plans a 40%-growth for the second edition, which will take take place in Buenos Aires in September 2012. This second edition should have a free highway in front of it, as there are almost no local competition, beside some events organized by local distributors. The eleventh edition of Distree EMEA should take place next year in February in Monaco.

IOCELL Networks in exclusive partnership with NTP
2010-09-03
United Kingdom : networked storage vendor IOCELL Networks has unveiled an exclusive UK distribution deal with peripheral and consumer electronics specialist NTP. This partnership is an extension of the existing partnership of NTP, which has closed its Spanish office, with IOCELL in Germany.

Secu4 fine-tunes its notebook anti-theft device
2010-03-19
Cebit 2010 : one of the few really innovative products which was present on Cebit is BlueWatchDog from Swiss Secu4. This credit-card-sized, anti-theft device pairs with a mobile phone through Bluetooth. It can then be put within the object to be protected : a notebook case, a briefcase, a suitcase or even the pocket of a child. If the protected object gets out of Bluetooth signal (about 10 m), the alarm rings.

Compared to its first version, BlueWatchDog has been optimized by its developer : « we can now choose the level of the alarm, which can be useful with a child. Maximal level has been raised to 110 dB, so that it can be heard from deep within any case. And we have added a keyring », says Ralph Rimet, the inventor of BlueWatchDog. BlueWatchDog has been reviewed to be more retail-oriented. An Androïd version of the software has also recently been developed. « We only miss an iPhone software. Its development is more complicated than expected, as we have to add specific components on the card », Ralph Rimet explains.

BlueWatchDog is now distributed in many European countries, through a network of distributors or resellers like Actebis or NTP in Germany, or Quinta, Tsira Kindis, Mind You IT or, more recently, Numeric Trade in Belgium. It is still looking for distributors in some major countries like France : « we are exploring all channels and hope to complete our distribution network in these countries very soon », Ralph Rimet concludes.

NTP adopts a Penguin
2009-12-11
Germany : consumer electronics specialist NTP has signed a distribution partnership with Belgian lifestyle vendor Kysoh. Kysoh has developed Tux, a computer companion/robot which connects wirelessly to the computer within 15 to 20 meters and tells its owner about the latest info from anywhere around the house. Thanks to a wide range of open-source gadgets, Tux can access and exchange data on Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, RSS, MSN or Skype ; check weather ; broadcast music or even have its own attitudes which can be easily programmed. Kysoh is actively looking for other distributors in whole EMEA region, and other partnerships should be announced in the coming months…

Raikko expands its distributor network
2009-11-27
DACH : consumer electronics and accessory vendor Raikko has expanded its distribution network in DACH region by signing partnerships with telephony specialist AKL in Austria, consumer electronic specialist NTP in Germany and mobility specialist Phoenix Consulting in Switzerland (source : Channel Insider Deutschland).