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11 May 2010
PineApp’s UK channel is being run out of its Israel HQ after local owner-manager Rakash Gupta decided to leave the security appliance vendor.
Gupta, who was sole owner of PineApp UK, confirmed to CRN that he is moving on and that all local activities will be wound down by the end of May.
UK channel activities will now be spearheaded from Israel with help from recently appointed local distributor Softek.
Further reading
Arie Wolman, vice-president of sales at PineApp, said the change “would not harm” PineApp’s 15-20 UK resellers.
“We have taken one leg out so we can now give more competitive pricing,” he said: “Softek is a very good technical company and is ready to start with all the marketing requirements.”
Insiders suggest the relationship between Israel and local management reached breaking point when the vendor failed to secure a berth at Infosec. Wolman denied this but admitted UK sales had been “slow”.
“[Local management] decided they didn’t want to continue working with us,” he said. “Business was not to the extent we had hoped for and the UK is a very tough market.”
Mike Bienvenu, technical director at Softek, said the change would give the distributor a "direct line" into Israel. “Softek is experienced in taking on products that do not have representation in the UK," he added.
Andi Robinson, managing director at Security IP, which has also acted as a distributor for PineApp for the past 18 months, said: “We look forward to speaking more with Israel to discuss how we can move forward in the future.”
Gupta confirmed his decision to “move on” had prompted the vendor to close the UK office. He added that business development director Dominic Hoskins was staying on temporarily to help with the transition.
Wolman said that PineApp would not rule out setting up another direct office because the UK was an important market.
“We recently came out with a new range of solutions based on VMware which has done quite nicely in the last couple of months,” he said. “We see a good future for our products in the UK.”
Gupta indicated he planned to stay in this channel, saying "watch this space ".
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