AYC Telecoms has axed three UK distributors in favour of a sole distribution strategy through Hugh Symons.

Vcomm, Telappliant and Spot Distribution have all been canned by the vendor and placed under the standard 30-days notice, however an email to AYC’s reseller and customer base has added salt to the wounds.

AYC sent an email to its entire database stating that Hugh Symons would be its master distributor. Other distribution partners have claimed

the email has resulted in lost orders from customers moving directly to Hugh Symons.

Paul Howard, chief executive of AYC, confirmed the email was sent, but claimed that resellers can continue to deal with all four current partners for the time being.

“We believe we have made the right choice. It is a purely commercial decision and a single distributor has worked well for us in other countries,” Howard said.

Scott Dobson, managing director at Vcomm was clearly disappointed with AYC’s actions.

“Any normal firm would wait for the 30-days notice period to be up.

“We are very disappointed as we wanted to work with AYC to move the business forward, but not now they have sent that email out. I have already had four or five resellers on the phone cancelling their orders,” Dobson said.

Tan Aksoy, managing director at Telappliant, claimed that the decision would not have a massive impact on the distributor.

“In terms of distribution we will just cut back our AYC range and push our own brand first.”

Aksoy also said that Telappliant did not work with many AYC resellers and claimed rival Vcomm would suffer more due to “reliance on AYC product shipments”.

He added that AYC had gone for Hugh Symons to ensure “greater focus” on its product set.

Mike Jones, managing director at AYC reseller Acoustik, which partners with Vcomm, added: “I’m very surprised by the news, we had a good relationship with Vcomm, and I can understand why some people are upset by what’s happened.”

He said Hugh Symons may find it tough as the AYC product is still a technical sell.

trevor_treharne@vnu.co.uk