PST website to help avoid channel stuffing
Redistribution company PST is to launch a website to address poor stock management among manufacturers and distributors.
Redistribution company PST is to launch a website to address poor stock management among manufacturers and distributors.
The firm, which posted annual turnover figures of £125m, buys and sells outdated or surplus stock. John Broderick, business development director, will head the project. He said: "The internet has accelerated the pace of the market, reducing product life cycles and putting some vendors in an impossible situation.
"PST provides a service that is increasingly in demand. We have to turn down 85 per cent of the stock offered; the online service will help us handle more volume."
The website will provide an online database of all available stock, but will keep the suppliers' details private unless otherwise requested.
John Meredith, marketing manager at PST, said: "Whenever a company wants to offload 50,000 unsold printers, it does not want to publicise its name. The website will retain the same discretion as our current service."
Graham Palmer, a representative at chip giant Intel, said poor stock management has an unavoidable knock-on effect on the channel. "Redistributed product inevitably falls into the grey market. It is unavoidable. Those who buy it cheap later undercut a vendor's official channel partners."
UK-based distributor Datrontech admitted it was badly hit by stock management problems last year, forcing it to close down operations in two countries.
Mandy Birtles, marketing communications director, said: "Although much in demand right now, processors are a good example of where we regularly get our fingers burnt by the grey market because the big OEMs have to commit to volume. Stock management is one of the most important operations in distribution because it affects everyone. Margins are so small now, one mistake and you lose a month's turnover."
PST said an official launch date for the online service had yet to be discussed, but the service is expected to be available by the end of the year.