Girling flies the D-Link coop after costly deal

Adrian Girling, sales manager at networking manufacturer D-Link, has left the company abruptly, after an exclusive deal with distributor DMST angered the channel.

The troubles began last month when DMST secured a deal with D-Link to buy thousands of units of non-CE approved kit, at prices that were drastically low because D-Link needed to get rid of stock.

An industry source said: 'Girling struck a deal with DMST on product without authorisation. D-Link lost a packet on the products, but was committed to the deal with DMST at prices which were mental.' Another said: 'They made a big blunder on pricing and the sales manager copped it.'

DMST was able to sell a D-Link card for about u9 to u10, when standard cards normally cost about u20 to u25.

DMST MD Pat Harvey defended the deal. 'The further it got into March the keener D-Link was to resolve the issue, so we came up with an offer which enabled us to compete with cheap imports. We received no preferential treatment because we weren't selling CE-approved product.' Fateen Fateen, D-Link MD said the deal was a one-off. He did not comment on why Girling had left.