Landis UK gives up the fight

Distributor admits defeat and goes into administration

The troubled UK arm of pan-European broadline distributor Landis has finally given up the ghost and gone into administration.

Landis's service division, ICT Services, has also gone into administration. Insolvency and accountancy firm Pannell Kerr Foster (PKF) has been appointed as administrator.

Landis UK was left fighting for survival after rival networking distributor Westcon bought all of its European assets for an undisclosed sum last month.

Although Westcon was in discussions with the UK business at that time, it decided not to buy the assets.

However, Nitin Joshi, partner and head of the computer sector at PKF, is confident that the business will be sold quickly.

"There is much that can be salvaged," he said. "We have received tremendous interest in the training and services part of the business. Landis had a good reputation in the UK, and had a loyal and dedicated workforce in technical markets."

Several firms are rumoured to be interested in the business, including Sphinx CST and Azlan, which refused to "comment on market rumour".

Mike Watkins, former managing director of Landis UK, said between 50 and 60 employees had already been laid off.

"The main reason was that Westcon bought the business in nine other countries but left the UK out," he said. "Landis was a pan-European firm and without the centralised purchasing and logistics in Europe it was difficult to continue. This is why the insolvency decision was made."

Bernie Dodwell, sales and marketing director at security distributor Alasso, said: "The issue of broadline distribution is can it survive? We focus on a specialist niche market with only 20 or so products, whereas the broadlines do order-taking and selling and have hundreds of product lines. It will be interesting to see what happens."

Manny Pinon, sales director at networking distributor Norwood Adam, said: "We are not really interested in the businesses and there will always be this problem with broadline distributors. Landis has been in a downward spiral for years."