Key Tronic takes solo keyboard route

Key Tronic has parted company with Computer 2000 as it embarks on a drive to set up its own channel.

Although Key Tronic has been in business for 30 years, working in the OEM market for PC manufacturers. It is now moving aggressively to sell keyboards using its own name.

Ian Robin, UK and Southern Europe channel manager at Key Tronic, said: 'We decided to cut the number of distributors we were using as part of a refocus.We felt that C2000 would not be able to do the best job it could for us until Key Tronic had gained a bigger brand awareness in the market.'

He added: 'We have had huge profile problems. Although we are well known to the big PC manufacturers from an international point of view, we do need to enhance our profile to get into national and local assembly.'

As part of this process, Key Tronic has launched a partnership programme aimed at PC Assemblers, designed to give product flexibility and an assured aggressive speed of delivery.

The vendor aims to repeat the success it had in Sweden, where aesthetics and ergonomics are of much greater importance, and the Key Tronic name has become synonymous with keyboards.

'The problem in the UK at the moment is that people are just not bothered about keyboards. We aim to change that,' said Robin.