Fujitsu: UK channel splurge is paying off

Vendor sticks the boot into HP one last time

Fujitsu has held up a big spike in server, storage and client sales as evidence that its recent channel investment drive is bearing fruit.

Over the past year, the Japanese hardware and services goliath has doubled its UK channel headcount to 50, hoisting its channel marketing spend at the same rate.

During the period, Fujitsu's tally of UK trading partners has hiked from 700 to 1,000 and its base of SELECT Server or Storage Expert partners has swelled from 10 to 60.

Talking to ChannelWeb, Michael Keegan (pictured), executive director, Technology Product Group at Fujitsu UK and Ireland, said the investment is beginning to translate into hard sales.

According to its own figures, Fujitsu's UK notebook sales more than trebled year on year in the six months to 31 October 2011 and are now hitting 40,000 a quarter. Sales growth of its ETERNUS DX2 storage range almost quadrupled on the same basis.

Meanwhile, Fujitsu's server sales rose 18 per cent in Q2 in an overall market that fell by three per cent, according to Gartner. The analyst pegged the vendor's professional PC growth at 28 per cent during the same quarter, as the overall market slipped back 0.6 per cent.

Keegan attributed the spike to a combination of HP's wobble over its systems division, PSG, and Fujitsu's increased visibility in the channel.

"At a time when the overall market is experiencing considerable difficulty, Fujtisu is seeing profitable growth," he said. "This is not us just buying market share."

Keegan claimed resellers would have long memories when it comes to the HP PSG saga, despite the vendor's recent decision to keep it in-house.

"It is never something you can quantify but the whole episode has put a question mark over HP's long-term commitment to this market," said Keegan. "People who have lived through it this year will remember it for a long while to come."