Distribution sector shaken up by launch of Horizon's UK division
Irish distributor may sign up Tandberg as the first of up to five vendors within the coming year
The distribution sector saw more commotion last week as Irish giant Horizon Technology Group (HTG) continued its UK onslaught by launching a UK division to expand its technology and vendor coverage.
HTG already owns distributor Clarity in the UK, and it also acquired equIP earlier this year (CRN, 2 February). The new division, Horizons Solutions, will sit alongside Clarity and equIP within Horizon’s Enterprise Solutions Division.
HTG said it will only sign vendors to Horizon Solutions that will expand on Clarity’s coverage in servers, storage, middleware and application acceleration, and equIP’s focus on networking, security and voice over IP.
The division’s first vendor partner will be announced within weeks and CRN understands videoconferencing vendor Tandberg is in the frame.
Simon Welch, marketing director at the Horizon Enterprise Solutions Division, said: “We deal with a certain type of technology and drive deep integration skills into the system integrator and service provider community. In the past, if we were approached by firms looking for solutions in an area we didn’t focus on, we have turned them away.
“Horizon Solutions will consist of new vendors that will be fairly well-known names. It will be vendors that have a dozen or so resellers and have realised that they need a partner with a proven track record for building channels.”
Welch added that in 12 months there will be four to five vendors signed up to the division.
“Clarity and equIP will maintain their own brands, but we are working closely together and there is unification across the firms,” Welch said.
“We will be able to offer an extensive range of solutions to our partner base, but this won’t water down our technical competencies with our current vendors. We are not becoming a broadline provider.”
Mark O’Hara, managing director of VAR partner Hydra, said: “It is important for a distributor to be niche and specialised. Clarity used to be niche, but it might be become more horizontally focused.”
Last week, the distribution sector received another shake-up after the launch VADition, a new distributor to the market (CRN, 10 July).