ATI drops disties from Euro plan

The vendor has axed Logitek, Metrologie and Total Network Solutions

Allied Telysyn International (ATI) has culled three of its six UK distributors in a move towards a clearer, more pan-European channel policy.

The networking vendor said over-distribution would make it difficult to hit its target of $50 million Northern European sales by 2000.

Logitek, Metrologie and Total Network Solutions have been sacked, while pan-Europeans Anixter and Frontline, and Basingstoke-based Micro Peripherals have been retained.

PC Dealer revealed last month that Logitek had signed up ATI competitor D-Link, and that its contract with ATI was expected to terminate on 1 February. (PC Dealer, 10 January.)

Ernie Jones, ATI MD for Northern Europe, said the firm had had a poor channel reputation a year ago. ?The lines between distributors and Vars were not clear and neither was the ATI channel strategy.

?We want to tackle the high-volume, low-margin market across Europe, and that ambition became incompatible with UK specialists such as Logitek and TNS.?

Bernie Wheaton, Logitek business development director, said he had been surprised by the decision as Logitek was ATI?s longest standing and biggest distributor. ?They took the decision to go pan-European, but told us we could still buy from Frontline, who were getting five per cent more discount than we were.?

Jones said ATI will go after 3Com as its main rival, and aims to lower costs and broaden ranges to win market share. ?We beat 3Com on price and channel policy and that is the way we?ll hit our millennium target.?