CHS/Merisel set to split business

CHS/Merisel is preparing to divide its business by product lines and has given staff 30 days to consider relocation packages.

The broadliner denied that the upheaval would lead to job losses and claimed it offered a financial relocation package.

Its networking and storage arm, along with financial and customer services, will move to Woking. Systems, warehousing, software and peripherals will be based in Brentford.

Major accounts director Alison Heath said: 'A lot of people are confused while working out what they want to do. But where there are redundancies in some departments, those people can retrain by moving into other areas such as sales.'

Sources suggest that further difficulties arose internally because CHS and Merisel sales staff are competing against each other. One source said: 'It's a bit of a balls-up because CHS is undercutting Merisel for business as they're fighting over the same customers.'

Jan Lawford, CHS/Merisel vendor management director, confirmed that there was competition. 'Until we have one front-end we're two separate companies with our own targets so we still compete,' she said. 'But we are doing what we can to limit this, especially with our larger resellers.'