Avnet to close Bell Chessington HQ

ChannelWeb understands staff informed last week of plan to shut down office

The Bell tolls: Avnet is set to close down Bell Micro's office in Chessington, which housed 100 staff

Distributor Avnet Technology Solutions is to close down the UK headquarters of recent acquisition Bell Micro, ChannelWeb understands.

It is believed affected staff – thought to number about 100 – were informed on Friday. It is not yet known how many staff will be rehoused or made redundant. The commuter-belt town had been Bell Micro's UK home for a number of years. The office housed employees across functions including finance, admin, HR, credit, sales and purchasing.

Having closed its acquisition of Bell in July, Avnet retired the Bell name earlier this month.

Avnet EMEA president Graeme Watt claimed the process was an internal matter and declined to comment further.

Joe Fagan, product marketing manager at distributor CMS Peripherals, claimed that mergers inevitably gave rivals a chance to pounce on desirable staff.

"It has to be an opportunity for competitors as one plus one never equals two," he said. "It always equals one and a bit, and the other bit is available to other distributors."

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