Broadliner Ingram Micro (Pty) Ltd has decided to change its operating model in South Africa. According to the company, the relatively small size of its operations and the limited number of product lines available have impacted the company’s ability to expand its offerings within the country, limiting the solutions it is able to provide its customers and affecting the company’s success in the country. Based on its belief that a different operational model is required to successfully serve the South Africa market, Ingram Micro (Pty) Ltd has started consultations under section 189 of the Labour Relations Act 66 Of 1995 with its employees to effect a proposed winding down of its operations in South Africa by consensus. Ingram entered the South African market back in 2007. Assuming all regulatory and legal clearances are received, the company expects to wind down its South Africa offices by 1st December 2019, and is working with regulatory authorities to help ensure a smooth transition for impacted associates. The company is providing career counselling, severance and other customary benefits to the associates. The company plans to continue to serve South Africa from Europe (namely, through its international business based in Germany), which will enable it to leverage broader vendor relationships – particularly for the DC POS and Cloud products – to provide a more robust suite of offerings into the South Africa market. Some other parts of the business will be served from the United Arab Emirates. “These are always difficult decisions to take, however, we believe we will be able to better serve the IT needs of our customer and vendor partners in South Africa from our European and UAE operations”, said Ali Baghdadi, SVP and Chief Executive META region in Ingram Micro. “With this move, we will be able to leverage established best-practices and current vendor relationships, particularly in the fast-growing DC POS and Cloud markets, to offer an expanded suite of products and solutions to our South African customers."