Proxim names duo to replace Logitek

Logitek has been ousted as sole distributor for US-based networking company Proxim after failing to develop a significant channel market for the manufacturer in the UK.

Proxim has replaced Logitek by appointing Kerridge Network Systems and DMST as its UK distributors. Kerridge Network Systems and DMST will be responsible for distributing Proxim?s Rangelan 2 products.

According to Bernard Picot, director of European sales at Proxim, Logitek failed to make an impression on the UK market because it pushed the manufacturers? products through Vitec, Logitek?s reseller arm, instead of through its distribution business operation.

Picot said: ?It was supposed to be our local representative, to establish and develop the market ? it didn?t do that.?

But Bernie Wheaton, business development director at Logitek, claimed: ?There was a misunderstanding on Proxim?s part of what distribution is about.?

Wheaton stated that while sales of Proxim?s wireless Lan products were good, they did not achieve a high volume. ?We were wanting to increase [our] turnover from #48 million to #68 million. Proxim wasn?t going to give us that,? he said. ?Proxim isn?t a big ticket. It will be tomorrow?s product.?

Proxim?s foray into the UK channel began more than two years ago when it first signed up Logitek.

The US-based company hopes to generate 55 per cent of its sales from Europe by 1998 and has already set up an office in France.

Meanwhile, Proxim has announced an agreement with IBM Global Services to incorporate Rangelan 2 wireless Lan technology in the US giant?s mobile computing products.