C2000 taunts Ilion manpower

Ilion's plan to more than quadruple its Hewlett Packard networking sales team has sparked criticism from Computer 2000 over the inability of sales on the product line to support a drastic increase in overheads.

Due to an agreement with HP signed on 1 April, the distributor has promised to increase its once three-strong sales team to 16 which, according to Allan Mack, MD of Ilion, will be the largest team in the company.

Mack said: 'This is exactly the right number because HP will start releasing high-end products which need this focus.'

But Steve Lockie, general manager of networking at C2000, said: 'There is some overkill - the hub business is worth about #1 million a month and applying this amount of people is going to produce an enormous cost model.'

Lockie claimed he would increase its HP networking team from one salesperson due to 'renewed vigour from HP'. He stated: 'There was not much focus, sales had dipped and HP was not watching the market, but there has been an increase in development funds.'

Sally Lawlor, networking business development manager at HP, said: 'There are going to be some major changes and an increase in focus on HP's networking products.'

Lawlor admitted the agreement with Ilion was partly a result of emerging products, but said: 'We need to introduce HP to markets it has not been in before.'

Mack said: 'It is a question of who will sell more, 16 people focused on one product line or fewer people with the same focus.'