Audiovisual (AV) distributor Maverick has bolstered its product and vendor portfolios by signing two vendors in as many weeks.

Today, Maverick will announce an agreement with networking vendor Belkin to sell its AV products, while two weeks ago the distributor also unveiled an agreement with high-end audio vendor ClearOne Communications.

Jon Sidwick, managing director of Maverick, told CRN that its partnership with Belkin is a stepping stone towards Maverick’s ambition to offer the widest AV range in the market.

“Over the next few months the market will see Maverick adding to its AV strengths,” he said. “The market can also expect to see more partnerships [with AV vendors].”

“Audio is a very important part of AV and is often neglected by the channel,” Sidwick added.

“With our ClearOne partnership we are expanding into an area of the UK market that is currently under-serviced.”

Darren Lewitt, divisional director at rival AV distributor Midwich, said: “We don’t see Maverick as a bigger threat by taking on Belkin. We sell Belkin’s entire product range, but focus mainly on its AV range.”

Lewitt added that Midwich also nearly formed a distribution partnership with ClearOne three years ago, but decided not to go ahead with the deal.

“I think Maverick is trying to re-identify itself in the market, but has so far found this tough,” he said. “Deep down the firm thinks it needs to add value, but I don’t think it’s sure of the right way to go about it.”

Earlier this year, Maverick made a number of redundancies from its ProInstall installation arm as part of a restructure (CRN, 13 March). ProInstall, which was created in September 2004 with a £3m investment from Maverick, would not reveal the number of redundancies, but CRN understood it to be in the region of 16 staff.

james_sherwood@vnu.co.uk