Acer drops distributors to focus on corporates

Acer UK has canned three of its nine distributors so it can focus on corporate sales, but it has vowed it will remain committed to the channel.

Acer UK has canned three of its nine distributors so it can focus on corporate sales, but it has vowed it will remain committed to the channel.

The casualties are Datrontech, Enta Technologies and SI Distribution.

Acer's remaining distributors are Midwich, Northamber, Sphinx CST, Phoenix Distribution Services, Emcee Distribution and Ideal Hardware.

Acer's consolidation of its distribution model comes as no surprise to the channel and was tipped to occur after the appointment of Ideal Hardware.

At the time, Scott Dodds, director of sales at Acer, said a review of the supply channel was under way but did not disclose which distributors would be axed.

According to Dodds, the decision to cull its channel was a "mutual" decision between Acer, Datrontech, Enta Technologies and SI Distribution.

"To achieve velocity in the channel we decided to concentrate on a tier one and tier two model for Acer's notebooks, desktops and servers," he said.

Meanwhile, the Taiwanese giant hopes to raise Acer's PC brand profile in the corporate and SME space by pumping £3m into its UK channel.

"The channel is more important than ever before. We have no capability to deal direct and believe this is the optimal route to market. Look at the problems Compaq is having by building a direct model," Dodds said.

But when asked if the decision not to offer direct sales to corporates would mean a loss in sales to a competitor, Dodds replied: "You can't win them all."

Michael Barron, notebook manager at Enta, confirmed the contract with Acer would finish by the end of March and said it was an "amicable" agreement.

However, he felt Enta was working well with Acer and said it was its number-one distributor for its notebooks. "Unfortunately, although we were doing 250,000 a month, Acer wanted more," he said.

A replacement for Acer is expected to be announced soon, said Barron.

Acer also moved its head office from Langley to Poyle last week.