Brigantia scheme tackles crunch

Iain Shaw: Distributor rebate scheme will deliver value to membership base

IT trade buying group Brigantia has launched a rebate scheme for its 980 members to help them through the credit crunch.
From the end of quarter four Brigantia will pay members a rebate based on their spend with the group’s associate distributors and service providers. This includes the likes of distributors Enta Technologies, Midwich and Westcoast and service providers such as Data Solutions and Grenke Leasing.

Members will be able to view monthly money spend reports provided by the distributors in their private log-in area of Brigantia’s portal.

Rebates will be paid to the members from February next year and every three months from then onwards, once the balance has passed £100.

Iain Shaw, chairman of Brigantia, said: “This is something we have planned for a while, but we were waiting for a strong membership base and the technologies to do it right.

“This scheme is Brigantia responding to the credit crunch ­ we are constantly trying to find new ways to deliver value in return for membership,” he added.

Shaw said that Brigantia’s next move will be to secure a similar deal with vendors.

“We will look at vendors next. They will receive special pricing through associate distributors and get a percentage back every month depending on the volume they sell ­ it will have to be a big enough volume to interest the vendor though,” he explained.

Tahir Shah, business manager at reseller London Computer Centre, said: “We were members of Brigantia for about 10 years, but moved to the National Buying Group (NBG) about a year ago, as they offer more rebates and good buying prices.

“NBG is a smaller group, so we feel our issues are better heard.”