Exclusive Networks bids farewell to vendor duo

Astaro drops UK distributors in wake of Sophos acquisition

Exclusive Networks UK is "amicably" parting company with two of its smaller vendor partners who have opted to cut out distribution for different reasons.

The distributor, which recently acquired VADition, will cease working with Astaro at the end of this month in the wake of the unified threat management vendor's acquisition by Sophos.

It is also parting company with GFI and is slowly winding down sales of its Max remote management offering.

Chris Walsh, sales director of Exclusive Networks, stressed neither vendor gelled with the group's long-term strategy.

Sophos, which has always operated a one-tier channel model in the UK, closed its acquisition of Astaro in early July and immediately served Astaro's two UK distributors - Exclusive and Northamber - with 30 days' notice.

Ciaran Rafferty, UK and Ireland director at Sophos, said: "We will be able to give Astaro partners significantly more margin by going single tier and we will be easier to engage with."

Walsh said: "It is a shame it's gone this way as Astaro is an excellent technology and we have spent several years growing its business.

"But we understand that you can't operate two different channel models in one firm and this means we can focus more resource on Fortinet and Palo Alto. It's not often you split with a vendor and it's so amicable."

Walsh claimed GFI's move to walk away was also driven from outside the UK and stressed it was a mutual decision. "GFI Max was not in line with our group strategy," he said.