|
|
|
28 Nov 2008
Westcon has broken the run of downbeat distribution news by asserting that its business pipeline remains strong in the run up to Christmas.
Westcon was one of the first major distributors to adjust the size of its UK workforce to fit the tough market conditions, putting around 25 staff on a 30-day consultation process in October (Channelweb, 14 October). Broadliners Bell Micro and Northamber were among those to follow suit in the weeks that followed.
Simon Minett, chief operating officer of Westcon Group Europe, told CRN: “Less than 2 per cent of our workforce across Europe were impacted by this. It was just a matter of rightsizing our business and readjusting as the market shifts - it is a different market we find ourselves in today than at beginning of the year.”
Further reading
Minett waved off suggestions that Westcon had encountered a slowdown in its Nortel and Avaya business.
“We will adapt our business in line with the market but right now we have a strong pipeline and I can see a strong pipeline until December. Revenue growth is still strong and we are pulling in some large deals on Nortel and Avaya,” he said.
Minett claimed Westcon was even seeing robust growth in some areas, including on partnerships with global systems integrators and service providers. The distributor recently signed a reverse logistics contract with BT, for instance.
He also denied that Westcon had stopped taking on new products.
Minett said: “We will take on new brands where they are deemed appropriate. But we will focus on brands that complement our business and deliver profitability. We may rationalise some vendors that are not delivering the profits or seeing the growth we expect, but there is nothing unusual in this.”
Some employees involved in the consultations were re-housed, Minett confirmed. This includes Guy Koster, who has been moved to a product management role within Westcon Convergence after the new product-focused Technology Solutions Group he headed up was effectively dismantled.
Related articles
In this video find out about the fast-growing Chinese vendor's plans for market domination and how the channel is its route of choice
Find out what gifts Acer has in store for partners for 2012 in this exclusive roundup of its recent conference
CRN's premier networking event is back on 17 May at the Ricoh Arena
Date: Thu 17 May 2012
Channel fighters preparing to square up once more on 24 May
Date: Thu 24 May 2012
The proliferation of endpoint devices within the enterprise has highlighted the shortcomings of one of the traditional approaches to data security
This Forrester report compares the costs and benefits of legacy email and productivity software with Google Apps
Dave discovers that rozzers are seemingly living in the technology dark ages
Mark Needham, founder of distributor Widget, argues that John Browett leaves for Apple with Dixons in better shape than when he arrived
|
|
|
Do you agree?
Have your say