Disties bite dust in FTP reshuffle

Following its merger with subsidiary Firefox, the vendor is to axe distributors in the UK and Europe

Networking vendor FTP Software has dumped four distributors in the UK and another 60 across Europe after merging operations with subsidiary Firefox, which it bought in July last year.

FTP wholesalers Persona, Compass, Integralis and Toplog lost out to Unipalm and to Firefox partners Azlan and Sphinx CST in the reshuffle last month. Persona and Toplog, which merged on Monday, will still be able to source product through Toplog France, but will have no direct relationship with FTP in the UK.

Persona Toplog sales director Lynette Summerfield said she was aware that contracts were up for renewal, but denied being told of its UK sacking.

?We have been told we would have one account manager based in France, which we are not happy with,? she said. ?But we have not been told we could not buy product in the UK.?

But Lewis Gee, FTP channel manager for EMEA, said he had informed Persona and Toplog of the changes in a meeting two weeks ago.

?FTP and Firefox combined had nearly 80 distribution partners across Europe. Although we can?t prevent a distributor selling in any country, we wanted to rationalise numbers and have a single point of contact, contract, and delivery.

?We want to sign Persona/Toplog in France, because that is where they sell most FTP product, but in the UK Azlan, Sphinx and Unipalm are more successful.?

Integralis will still handle FTP as a reseller, as the vendor migrates to a fully two-tier model, but Compass was sacked because its turnover was insufficient compared with other distributors, said Gee.

Compass marketing manager John Fox said the firm had been told informally that it was no longer a distributor, but had not received formal notification. ?FTP?s channel direction has been confusing and it has taken a while to find its feet.'