Panic buying fuels huge spike in channel PC sales

Resellers moved to hoover up as much stock as possible in aftermath of Brexit, data from Context indicates

Panic buying among resellers fuelled a 50 per cent spike in the number of PCs sold by UK distributors in the aftermath of the Brexit vote, data from Context indicates.

According to the analyst, resellers vacuumed up as much stock as possible in late June and early July to beat vendor prices rises, causing distributor sales to go into overdrive, albeit temporarily.

In week 26, beginning 27 June, the number of notebooks sold by distributors to resellers hit 96,000, up 57 per cent on the 61,000 sold a week earlier and double the 48,000 shifted in week 24.

Likewise, distributors' desktop sales spiked by 47 per cent in week 26 to 28,000.

Since then, sales have returned to pre-Brexit levels, with notebook sales dropping back to 58,000 in week 27 and 57,000 in week 28, and desktop sales falling to 17,000 and 19,000 on the same basis.

Context UK country manager Jonathan Wagstaff told CRN that the phenomenon was triggered by well-founded fears of blanket vendor price rises in the wake of the Brexit-induced crash in sterling.

"As soon as the vote happened, it became clear that prices were going to go up a lot, and the distributors started selling like crazy," said Wagstaff, who claimed Context's data covers 95 per cent of the UK distribution market.

"Essentially, resellers were cottoning on to the fact that prices were going to go up and wanted to hoover up as much stock at the lower prices as possible."

UK distributors with European businesses, such as Exertis and Westcoast, will also have benefitted from a rush among continental resellers, Wagstaff added.

"Those distributors that have the capability to fulfil orders on the continent did very good business," he said.

"They were basically having their doors banged down by European buyers wanting to buy in euros."

Wagstaff said it was too early to predict the longer-term impact of Brexit on the PC market, but stressed that initial fears that it would cause an inventory backlog thankfully proved wide of the mark.

"We were hearing from the vendors of there possibly being over-stocking problems for PCs in the channel but as soon as Brexit happened and the price rises were announced, it seems to have organically cleared that," he said.