Hitachi appoints Midwich

Hitachi hopes to target new verticals with the appointment of Midwich as its fourth projector distributor.

Ron Low, senior distribution manager for LCD projectors at Hitachi, told CRN that the vendor had been looking at its dependency on the education market.

“Taking into consideration the slight weakening in the education market, plus the development of new projectors focused on other markets, we decided it made sense to take on an additional distributor to help us reach different markets,” he said. “Midwich ticked all of the boxes.”

Hitachi wants Midwich to help it gain a stronger footing in the corporate, SME, public sector and leisure markets.

“We have a well-established trio of distributors: Anders & Kern, Maverick and Medium,” Low said. “We hope that they don’t see the addition of Midwich as a threat.”

Darren Lewitt, divisional director at Midwich, said: “We already sell Hitachi’s interactive whiteboards so it will be good to now offer bundles that include Hitachi projectors.”

Low added that the leisure market could really take off for projectors because of the introduction of the smoking ban in the summer.

“Only certain projectors work well in a smoky atmosphere, so when the smoking ban takes effect in July, pubs and clubs will open up as potential new markets for resellers,” Low said.

Lewitt agreed: “The leisure market is open for the right vendor."

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