Avnet shuts Leeds office

Distributor says restructuring will allow it to focus on high-growth opportunities and improve account ownership

Avnet Technology Solutions (TS) has closed its Leeds office and rejigged its sales organisation after completing a restructure of its UK business.

In late June, the distributor announced it was embarking on a restructuring process, which included a proposal to close the smallest of its three northern offices in Leeds.

That location, which Avnet TS inherited through its acquisition of Bell and was used as a satellite sales office, has now been shut. Some of the staff based there are being relocated to its two remaining northern offices in Haslingdon and Warrington.

Having completed a 30-day consultation process with staff, Avnet TS has also restructured its general sales organisation.

This move is intended to "deliver increased focus to business partners", "align resource to high-growth opportunities" and "give increased clarity of account ownership", according to the distributor.

In a statement sent to ChannelWeb, UK and Ireland vice president John Toal (pictured), said: "Inevitably, and with regret, the changes have resulted in some redundancies. However, we are continuing to recruit in areas of the business where we are seeing opportunity and our priority, as always, is to recruit from within where possible."

Avnet would not comment on the exact number of redundancies, stressing that there are still positions open that it is trying to fill. Although sales director Paul Cook left the business at the start of the process, all Avnet's remaining senior UK execs remain in place, the distributor confirmed.

Toal added: "It is critical that as a business we adapt to the changing market in order to remain relevant and competitive and to continue to accelerate the success of our partners.

"As such, we remain committed to investing in areas that we believe will deliver growth, as recently demonstrated by our acquisition of the IT estate management specialist Mattelli Ltd and Avnet's agreement to acquire the Magirus Group."