Distributors fight to stay with Olicom

Olicom?s four distributors are racing to beat a June deadline as the vendor prepares to axe one partner as a result of its acquisition of Crosscomm.

The Danish networking vendor has traditionally used Azlan to supply its products across Europe. Frontline distributes adaptor cards in the UK. At the end of last year, Olicom signed Ingram Micro to sell its Token Ring, Ethernet and ATM local area network products worldwide and Persona to sell them in the UK.

Carina Klasse, Olicom UK channel director, said: ?The decision hasn?t been made yet, but four is one too many. I am looking for the right mix of distributors.? She refused to say which partner would be dropped.

Commenting on the loss of UK MD Bill Gretton, she said management losses were influential when looking at cutting partners. ?Distribution in the UK is very dramatic. Changing faces and turbulence do make a difference when you are trying to build a relationship.?

Olicom bought Crosscomm, a US ATM and multi-protocol router technology manufacturer, for $45 million in March. The Crosscomm name is due to disappear and its products will be sold through the channel (PC Dealer, 2 April).