Maverick has claimed that UK resellers will reap the benefits of the European expansion of its lamp distribution arm, Hot Lamps.

Maverick parent Tech Data is to establish Hot Lamps sales posts across its 16 European operations in quarter four and 2009. Stock will be managed from the UK, although the distributor has promised next-day delivery for all European resellers.

Jon Sidwick, managing director of Maverick, anticipated the distributor would double stock levels to £2m by the end of 2009.
“As we increase our European penetration we will increase our lamp stock levels. This will benefit UK customers as the larger the stock holding, the better opportunities there are around pricing and promotion,” he claimed.

Sidwick said the expansion will make Maverick the only pan-European trade-only lamp distributor, but his claim was hotly disputed by rival Just Lamps.

Andy Read, group marketing director at Just Lamps, said the pan-global lamp distributor is now trade-only having sold off its direct government sales arm this summer.

“It is nice to hear another AV distributor has realised there is a continent out there, but last year we fulfilled over 100,000 lamps to 30 target countries,” Read said.