Job losses in C2000 restructure

Distributor cuts UK jobs as part of EMEA reorg

Computer 2000 (C2000) has cut a number of UK jobs as part of its corporate restructuring process.

Steve Lockie, managing director of C2000, was unable to confirm the exact number of redundancies, but CRN understands the figure to be around 30. Earlier this year C2000’s parent company Tech Data announced it would be restructuring its EMEA operations (CRN, 6 June).

Lockie said that the final changes were due to be implemented this week and the redundancies were “across the board”.

“We announced just after our first quarterly call that we were restructuring in EMEA. Some of that was related to the UK, but we have had a headcount freeze in Q1 to minimise the impact,” he said.

Lockie also said that the distributor had reorganised its business into different categories as opposed to a “per vendor approach”. These are: Peripherals; Software; PCs; PC Components and supplies; its Datek AutoCAD business and the Azlan networking division.

“This is not something that has been sprung upon us – we reacted early to the warning signs in the market. We have had the benefit of spreading the changes over a couple of months. We fully expect other distributors to take similar actions, but we have done it early,” Lockie said.

Andy Dow, commercial director at distributor Westcoast agreed that some distributors might find the going tough.

“We are going through a period of rapid growth and we are actively recruiting at the moment. The market is a bit difficult but we anticipated this a long time ago and are in a very strong position. I would agree that the rest of the year is going to be tough for a lot of firms,” he said.