Info'Products dumped from Citibank contract

Contract Dickel joins growing list of senior staff departures from beleaguered reseller.

Troubled reseller Info'Products has confirmed the loss of its from beleaguered reseller. multi-million pound supply contract with Citibank.

In a further embarrassing blow, Howard Dickel has resigned as Info'Products' UK director of business development. According to industry sources, Dickel left the company on 2 July 'to pursue other business interests'.

Bill Colman, director of business services at Info'Products, said: 'We have had some feedback from Citibank and I'm afraid that particular tender was lost. It's not the news we would have liked to have heard.'

Colman refused to comment further except to say Info'Products was bidding for a number of other contracts which it felt confident it would win.

Industry sources claimed Computacenter had won the Citibank account.

Grant Evans, Citibank account manager at Computacenter - responsible for tendering the bid - was unavailable for comment. But a representative for the reseller said a formal statement would be made this week.

Info'Products inherited the Citibank contract when it acquired Simmons Magee last year. Since then, the reseller has lost a number of lucrative contracts, including deals with Scottish Nuclear, Harper Collins and half of the Chase Manhattan contract.

As exclusively revealed in PC Dealer, the reseller has also been plagued by charges of financial mismanagement over the past two years, which resulted in an accumulated loss of at least #10 million (PC Dealer, 29 April).

It has also emerged that at least three more employees are leaving the company. Colin Grey, who is described as 'closely associated with the Citibank account', Alan White, head of purchasing, and Grant Price, international alliance manager, are leaving the reseller.

Info'Products refused to comment on the departures but a representative insisted that the two developments were unrelated. She said: 'I can confirm that Howard's departure is in no way connected to the loss of the Citibank account.'