Ingram sets sights on global arena

Jerre Stead, CEO of Ingram Micro, has unveiled his strategy for the distributor's global market and will introduce further schemes to help resellers make money from the Internet.

Under the growth plan, John Winkelhaus, Ingram European vice president, will concentrate on growing the company's Western and Eastern European business.

Stead, who joined Ingram last August, said: 'Striving to do a pan-European job is much harder than people appreciate. I am not that concerned about the perceived barriers. There will continue to be local flavours, but we have an inventory-sharing system in Europe that lets us move through these areas very efficiently.'

He said the recent acquisition of Merisel by CHS will lead to greater stability in the market and expects further consolidation in the distribution market, which will eventually lead to benefits for both suppliers and resellers.

'Two years ago there were 300 companies and now there are only 154. One of the things that will drive this is continuing consolidation.

We treat all our competitors with great respect and beat them every day of the week.'

Stead said that Ingram viewed the UK economy as a sound economy. 'We should see significant double-digit growth in 1996 and 1997,' he said.

'Our job is to continue to implement programmes.'

Ingram is to introduce an Internet-based order status service, initially in the US. The scheme will let dealers electronically check the progress of their orders using a Web site. Customers will register for a password online and can then track information about where orders are in the supply chain.