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16 Jun 2008
At its first ever European Investor Relations Conference held in Chelsea Harbour, the Global Technology Distribution Council (GTDC), highlighted the important role that distributors play in the channel.
With the chief executives of many global players including Avnet, Ingram Micro, Tech Data, Magirus, Westcoast and Bell Micro present at the event, the general consensus was that times are tougher, but distribution is weathering the storm.
According to a survey of 60 major vendors carried out by the GTDC, 80 per cent of those respondents said that distribution was a “valuable and vital component of their business”.
Further reading
Tim Curran, chief executive of the GTDC, said: “Distributors deal with every leading IT vendor in the market and help vendors reach mission critical users around the world.”
One of the main panel debates at the event was on the tried and tested subject of the credit crunch and its effect on distribution. But most chief executives were defiant.
Tom Dolan, chief executive of Westcon Group, said: “In the US our sales growth is not what it is in the rest of the world. It is an uncomfortable time, but we are not at a point where it has affected our results.”
Roy Vallee, chief executive of Avnet, said at the event that he was “cautiously optimistic that a recession could be avoided”.
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