Ricoh wants VARs to get snap-happy

Peripherals vendor on the verge of appointing a new distributor

Peripherals vendor Ricoh is on the verge of appointing a new distributor.

The firm hopes to encourage resellers to push Ricoh into the corporate space, growing its share of the digital camera market.

The firm, which consolidated its digital camera range with its digital media solutions products in 2001 to form Ricoh EPMMC, hopes that by increasing its distribution network it will gain a larger chunk of the market.

Dominic Wingent, Ricoh's national sales manager, said that although its cameras had a good brand name and a number of vendor bundling deals, customer awareness was not good.

"We want to promote our new camera range aggressively, and expanding our distributor network will help," he said.

Wingent added that all Ricoh business partners will be supported by Ricoh's own internal marketing department, as well as by continued telephone and email technical support.

Lesley Ball, sales director at Computer Connections, one of Ricoh's current distributors, welcomed the news. "This marketing support is essential and helps the channel to sell in a professional way," she said.

Wingent said the company had been talking to a number of potential distributors and would make an announcement about new partnerships in July.