HP vending causes UK alarm

Hewlett Packard insisted it had no immediate plans to introduce a vending service for its printer consumables in the UK or Europe, despite setting up a facility in the US last week.

The printer giant revealed it would sell consumables for its products via slot machines and launched a large wave of advertising and below-the-line campaigns in the US.

But the move was greeted with disbelief by UK distributors which sell both HP products and consumables.

One source, who wished to remain unnamed, told PC Dealer: 'We make next to nothing on consumables.' He also pointed out that the move could force him to shift from selling HP to Kyocera printers.

An advertising campaign in the UK trade press last week offered UK distributors a bigger margin from Kyocera printers than HP ones.

HP refused to comment.

Last week HP suffered the loss of Norry McAllister, channel and commercial sales manager of its enterprise systems division, to run the manufacturer's Australian subsidiary (PC Dealer, 12 November).