Exclusive: Storm Technologies sales staff jump ship to Computacenter

Sales director Trevor Nickolls and at least four sales staff leave the Watford-based reseller, CRN has learned

Storm Technologies' sales director Trevor Nickolls and at least four other sales employees have left the reseller with immediate effect to join Computacenter, CRN has learned.

Nickolls resigned on Friday morning, multiple sources told CRN, and has joined UK rival Computacenter along with at least four sales staff from Storm Technologies including two new business managers, a public sector manager and a senior account manager.

Sales director Nickolls has been leading Storm's sales operations for 15 years having joined the Watford-based reseller in 2006, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Founded in 2000, HP, HPE, Dell and Cisco partner Storm Technologies has risen to become one of the UK's top resellers by revenue, hitting £112.6m in sales in its last financial results from 2019.

The defected Storm sales staff will help Computacenter gain traction in the mid-market corporate space, sources said; a sector that the reseller giant has been quietly expanding into over recent years.

Computacenter traditionally sells to larger corporate customers, but now wants to grow into the mid-market following the success of close competitor Softcat, multiple sources said.

"The bottom line is, they're very nervous about Softcat taking that mid-market and corporate space. Computacenter have always owned the corporate space, but there's no where left to grow."

"It makes sense, and it's consistent with their strategy."

"I thought Trevor was going to stay there forever," another source said. "I'm surprised they didn't tie him in with shares or something."

CRN approached Computacenter and Storm Technologies for comment but did not receive a response by the time we went to press.