Tech Data divided over Europe

Distributor Tech Data has announced that it has split its Computer 2000 European operations into northern, central and southern regions, and created a European sales and marketing team to boost support to regional offices.

Distributor Tech Data has announced that it has split its Computer 2000 European operations into northern, central and southern regions and created a European sales and marketing team to boost support to regional offices.

The three areas will provide a permanent link between national operations and Tech Data's European headquarters in Munich.

Gerard Youna, managing director of Tech Data France, has been appointed senior vice-president for southern Europe. Alain Amsellem, who was jointly responsible for French operations with Youna, will become sole managing director for Tech Data France. The heads of all three regions will report directly to Graeme Watt, the company's European president.

The new sales and marketing operations group, to be headed by Wolfgang Pregel of Tech Data Spain, will be responsible for front-office operations, including the business development areas of ecommerce and the company's outsourcing activities. Dan Ahlstedt has been appointed vice-president of marketing.

The group will also oversee the pan-European introduction of activity-based costing, the company's US pricing policy.

A number of these initiatives come as part of Tech Data's unification strategy, which was exclusively announced to Computer Reseller News by Steve Raymund, Tech Data's chairman, last month.

He said the gap between US and European profit was unacceptable.

Commenting on the split, Watt said: "What we need is a structure in Europe that manages the daily operations and trading business in each country.

"The reorganisation will enable us to take a unified approach to IT, ecommerce and logistics. The changes will help us to make the best use of centralised resources."

Steve Brazier, analyst at industry researcher Canalys.com, said: "There is always a dilemma for large businesses about whether to organise by business unit or region, but this move by Tech Data makes sense.

"Tech Data has always been fairly de-centralised. It has grown by acquisition, but this move will change that. It will empower local management and make them more focused on the running of each country. They have realised that not every [European] country is like Germany."