VIP catches Techfever to storm home space
Distributor looks to dip its toes in digital-home market
Components and peripherals distributor VIP Computer Centre plans to dabble in the digital-home market with its latest acquisition.
Last week, as revealed by CRN online, the distributor acquired IT e-tailer Techfever for an undisclosed sum. Techfever will be run independently from VIP, but to ensure there is no conflict of interest between Techfever and VIP’s existing resellers, VIP will steer Techfever in a new direction, the firm said.
Karin Hobbs, sales and marketing director at VIP, told CRN: “We have been looking at the market, and one thing that’s not being covered very much is digital home. Our research shows that it is only being tapped in little pockets around the country.
“Intel and Microsoft keep talking about massive growth in the digital-home market, so we thought this was a good opportunity. Techfever will sell everything for the digital home.”
Hobbs said VIP intends to move Techfever away from its current focus and reposition it in the digital-home space, away from competitors such as Dabs and Ebuyer.
Stuart Davies, managing director of Techfever, said: “This is a great opportunity for Techfever to develop by moving from a mature and highly competitive market of price-focused components, to a value-add supplier of niche digital home products.”
Paul Graham, managing director of online reseller Excite IT, said: “If Techfever was struggling to compete against the big e-tailers and had the option to be bought by VIP then it can only be a good thing. Although we are fairly new to the market, we think we have found our niche.”
Seperately, VIP has awarded a shark diving trip to the winner of its February calendar campaign.
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