Kingston praises VARs for 10 years of success
Vendor reveals plans to expand into additional technologies following a decade of European growth
Memory giant Kingston Technology has stressed that its channel partners will play an essential role in helping it build on the growth achieved over its first 10 years of EMEA operations.
Last week, the vendor celebrated its first decade of operating in EMEA, but told CRN that much of the success would not have been possible without its channel partners, such as SCC and Computacenter.
Thomas Marschner, vice-president of sales and marketing EMEA, told CRN that Kingston now intends to expand into additional technologies, which could result in an expansion of its channel partners.
“Flash cards in the mobile sector are an expanding market,” he said. “We believe that there is a potentially huge channel opportunity here: for example, in the phone accessories market.”
The vendor was created in 1996 and now services double digit figures of channel partners from its European headquarters. Kingston claimed it is now on target to reach sales in excess of $900m by the end of 2006.
Marschner added that expanding the firm’s product lines in EMEA is an important step for Kingston. However, he claimed that its channel will be an essential tool in reaching the right markets.
“Our channel expansion will depend on the expansion of our product range,” he said. “There’s always a potential channel partner available that can help us get into any new market that may present benefits to us.”
Rob Bamforth principal analyst at Quocirca, told CRN: “There is the potential for security access services that manage data on the Flash cards, when rolled across a business department. However, I wouldn’t expect there to be much margin to be made by VARs on the cards themselves.”
The milestone comes one month after storage software vendor StorCase, sister company to Kingston Technology, officially ceased trading (CRN, 2 October). However, vendor CRU-DataPort has since announced its acquisition of StorCase’s Data Express product set.
>> Further reading: