Ingram Micro reveals restructuring rationale

Profit and loss: Ingram's EMEA restructure will mainly affect staff in the UK and Belgium,

Ingram Micro has revealed its EMEA restructuring plans are in response to the shifting demands of the channel, but stressed it is still pushing for growth.

As revealed by CRN Online, the broadliner reported a first-quarter operating profit decrease of 23.4 per cent in the EMEA region, despite an overall profit increase of 34.7 per cent (CRN Online 25 April).

Jay Forbes, president of Ingram Micro Europe, told CRN: “The majority of people affected [by the restructure] will be in our Belgian headquarters, although a few people in the UK do form part of that. We are working to get the matter resolved as quickly as possible.”

Overall, Forbes said Ingram has seen success in the SME sector as well as in certain product areas such
as software, systems and servers. But the real softening of the market, he admitted, was in the retail sector, printers and peripherals.

“Consumers are more wary of stepping up their spending. There has also been a softening of business sentiment in Q1,” he said.

Forbes added that the credit crunch was starting to bite, but said Ingram is in a strong position.
“We have to grow opportunities outside our normal footprint. We see an opportunity for continued growth both organically and through acquisition, but first we need to make fundamental changes to the business model,” he added.

Alastair Edwards, senior analyst at Canalys, said Ingram’s financial results were surprising.
“Canalys recently questioned 108 resellers, system integrators and distributors across Europe, 82 per cent of whom said they were experiencing business growth,” he said.

“Just 11 per cent said business was flat and seven per cent reported a decline. In general we feel the EMEA market is growing fairly strongly. Firms such as Ingram need to be taking risks and increasing coverage.”