Eaton drops Avnet in Australia

Multinational UPS supplier Eaton has revealed it is terminating its distribution agreement with Avnet in Australia.

The vendor made the move last week and a termination notice is now in place, said Eaton's general manager of power quality for ANZ, Michael Mallia.

CRN contacted Avnet but was unable to reach a spokesperson in time for publication.

Eaton today announced it has signed Ingram Micro as a key distributor in Australia, adding to its existing IT distributors Synnex, Dicker Data, Altech and Bluechip IT.

The move "up the food chain" is something the vendor has been aiming for in Australia for "a while", Mallia told CRN.

The US$22 billion-turnover vendor's global markets include the oil, gas and mining industries, but it has been specifically expanding its business in the IT channel.

"We've always been more of an industrial-focussed company; we play in the industrial mining, manufacturing construction markets. And Ingram brings us a whole new, much broader base to the IT channel.

"In Australia we've only really sold in IT channel via tier two distributors, until recently when Dicker Data acquired Express."

Ingram will distribute Eaton's Power Quality products, including UPS, rack power distribution products and IT racks, said Mallia.

Mallia said small to medium business had been a key target area for Eaton's IT channel in Australia for the last few years.

Eaton has also been investing in integrating its products with Cisco and VMware.