D-Link wraps up distribution reshuffle with Gem signing

Networking vendor finishes tinkering with distribution set-up after adding retail-focused player

Chris Davies: We have a very strong distribution team on board

After signing three distributors and parting company with two this year, D-Link claims it has finally assembled the perfect mix of volume and value-add routes to market.

The latest addition to the UK distribution fold is Gem, which has been brought on board to boost D-Link's standing in the high street retail space. It will also work alongside incumbent broadline players Ingram Micro, EntaTech and Micro-P in servicing the wider retail and etail market.

Chris Davies, general manager of D-Link UK and Ireland, claimed partnerships with telcos have put more than a million D-Link products into the homes of UK consumers over the past couple of years.

"This has increased our visibility tremendously," he added. "Gem will be able to offer us far more scope going into the retail marketplace."

Gem is the third addition to D-Link's distribution stable inside four months, with Bell Micro signing up in July and Computerlinks joining two weeks ago. Computer 2000 and Northamber no longer work with D-Link, but Davies stressed both relationships had ended amicably and could be resurrected at a later date.

"We had a steady distribution line-up for a decade and each of those distributors has changed beyond recognition," he said. "It was not feasible to keep it as it was. I am very pleased with the team we have now got on board, it is a very strong distribution map."

Having been bought by Avnet days after the D-Link deal was agreed, the Bell distribution partnership has so far been on the back-burner. But Davies claimed it would accelerate around the turn of the year.

Computerlinks director of new technology Dave Ellis claimed his firm would be the vendor's chief value-add distributor.

"We can take D-Link into new, more specialised networking, security and virtualisation partners – a different set of resellers to the other distributors," he added.

D-Link's physical security kit had been a key attraction, claimed Ellis.

"We are aiming to continue the growth of our IP physical security business, which has been growing nicely over the past couple of years," he said. "D-Link has some very good IP cameras and surveillance products, enabling us to offer a complete solution."