Olivetti plans a big push into channel

Move to sign up more distributors and dealers is part of a restructure which includes job cuts

Italian manufacturer Olivetti will implement a channel restructure by adding more distributors and resellers as the company looks to drastically cut the number of staff it employs.

Armando Traverso, Olivetti vice president of sales and marketing, admitted that the manufacturer needed to have deals in place with other distributors and cited Frontline and Ideal Hardware as being very important for the UK market.

He admitted that no discussions are taking place but added: ?If Frontline is interested, so are we.?

Olivetti has supply deals with Ingram Micro and ETC in the UK, while it has a couple of specialist distributors, including Midwich Thame, for notebooks only. Traverso said he was in discussions with Logitek, but stressed that any new deals would not affect existing distributors.

A dealer recruitment drive and loyalty scheme will be launched as soon as distributors are in place, said Traverso. The manufacturer already has 50 dealers in the UK and is looking to have a total of about 300.

The company?s commitment to third-party sales was emphasised by CEO Bernhard Auer, who said, ?Olivetti Personal Computers is 100 per cent indirect?, and that ?without distributors and dealers we wouldn't grow?.

Meanwhile, Auer admitted that he would streamline Olivetti ? which was sold off last month to a group of investors named Piedmont ? with a number of redundancies expected next month.

Auer said: ?The majority of the restructuring has happened. Last year we were split off as an integrated business. As far as our current course of action is concerned, you will have to adjust workforce and salesforce to a revenue level and margin level.?

Olivetti will formally declare its plans along with its full list of investors. When those changes happen, the unions at the old Olivetti factories will need to be consulted, he added. Job cuts are expected to hit the back office functions.