Lenovo targets HP partner base

Vendor looks to expand reach and looks to rivals' channels to achieve its aims

Lenovo is taking aim at HP’s partner base as it looks to recruit up to 300 new UK resellers.

The China-based vendor recently conducted a review of its UK distribution set-up, resulting in the termination of its relationship with Northamber, which is replaced by Micro Peripherals (Micro-P).

Lenovo will work with the new addition, alongside incumbent distributors Interface and Ingram Micro, to woo HP partners that are tired of competing in a crowded channel.

Neil Berville, Lenovo’s executive director for the UK, Ireland and Benelux, said the vendor had already run a campaign with Ingram Micro to tap into the distributor’s hardware reseller base.

“A lot of those were HP accounts,” he said. “We go out there with a message: we stack up very well in terms of value proposition. With HP, you are competing against the vast majority of other resellers ­ we see ourselves as a true alternative.”

Berville said he would be working hard to hold onto all resellers that had bought exclusively through Northamber. He claimed it was more than a straightforward case of pointing them towards Micro-P.

“I do not mind who picks them up as long as we do not drop any,” said Berville. “Northamber does have a number of unique accounts and we need to keep some consistency there. We are working closely with telesales and the account management team.”

Stewart Hayward, commercial director of online VAR Wstore, which resells both Lenovo and HP, said Lenovo’s portfolio would need “significant development” if the market was ever to consider it an enterprise hardware player in the mould of HP or IBM.

He added: “Resellers are either generalist or focused on one vendor based on which has the biggest market share.”