DRam vendor ousts general manager

The general manager at DRam vendor Dane-Elec UK has left the company after nine years at the helm.

The general manager at DRam vendor Dane-Elec UK has left the company after nine years at the helm.

Alan Stanley, a founder of the company's UK branch, was asked to leave the Surrey office after disappointing results, a head office representative confirmed.

Olivier Chouraqui, general manager at Dane-Elec France, where the firm is based, explained: "We have lost money in the UK for the past two years, and we didn't agree with Alan's business strategy any more, so we asked him to leave."

It was purely a business decision, and a replacement should be appointed sometime in June, he said, adding that the company has seen a number of potential candidates.

Dane-Elec, which sells only through the channel, has offices in Germany, Ireland and the US, and partners with manufacturers including Samsung, Toshiba, NEC, OKI and Siemens.

Chouraqui claimed that the company is confident of improving its UK performance under a new manager.

"The entire company lost money for the first time last year which was caused by price cutting," he said, adding that Dane-Elec is simply reacting quickly to "do everything it can to adapt to the UK market and increase profitability".

Dave Flack, marketing director at Memory Plus, said: "One of Dane-Elec's main problems has been its manufacturing arm which constantly turns out new products and causes any excess left on shelves to drop in value."

This caused the company to cut prices to sell in a market that is saturated with products already, which is probably what caused it to under-perform, he explained.

Also published in Computer Reseller News