Ingram Micro Europe has continued to bolster its automatic identification and data capture (AIDC) and point of sale (POS) business through the acquisition of Eurequat.

Ingram has snapped up the southern European distributor for an undisclosed sum, following its recent purchase of UK POS distributor Paradigm (CRN, 2 January).

Ingram also purchased Nordic POS distributor SymTech Nordic in 2006 (CRN, 30 October, 2006) back when previous president of Ingram Micro Europe, Hans Koppen, said grabbing a slice of the UK POS market was “a priority” for the firm.

Jay Forbes, president of Ingram Micro EMEA, said: “This acquisition provides us with an excellent platform for further European growth that is highly complementary to our broadline distribution business.

“It differentiates us from our peers while offering tremendous business opportunities to vendors and customers alike.”

Eurequat will be integrated into the Ingram Micro EMEA Data Capture/POS division, which will be led by Johan Vandenbussche, vice president of Ingram Micro EMEA.

The new unit will be led by Alain Lecuivre, previous management for Eurequat, who will report to Jan Gulbrandsen, director DC/POS of Ingram Micro EMEA.

Alain Lecuivre, chairman of the board of Eurequat SA, said: “Our expertise in offering value-add DC/POS solutions in France, Spain, Portugal and North Africa coupled with the capabilities of the world’s largest technology distributor will result in an even greater degree of professionalism for all our partners.”

Rod Rodericks, vice president and managing director for EMEA of vendor Zebra, welcomed the merger of the two Zebra distribution partners in EMEA.

“Eurequat has a proven track record of success with Zebra and combining them with the AIDC/POS experience of Ingram Micro in the UK, Ireland, the Nordics and the Baltics is building a solid platform to increase responsiveness and quality delivered to our resellers in EMEA,” he said.

John Klinker, channel director EMEA at Intermec Europe said: “We are fully confident that our reseller partners in France and Northern Africa will greatly benefit from this partnership.”