Distributors revel in reseller cuts

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Distributors revel in reseller cuts
Distributors are revelling in Ingram Micro and Synnex's recent moves to cull their reseller bases, with some reporting sales increases as a result.

Smaller wholesalers felt the cuts were inevitable and have gained customers as a result. "[Ingram and Synnex's] bad luck is our gain," claimed Peter Agamalis, senior channel manager at distributor Impact Systems. "I have seen a spur of resellers sign up to Impact online since Synnex's announcement."

Kevin Hartin, national sales manager at Altech, felt that the Ingram/Synnex culling "probably contributed to a recent surge in sales" for the distributor. The big distributors had "dropped our bread and butter", Hartin said.

"Synnex and Ingram put their resources into mid-end resellers and they support stupidly large credit accounts. At the smaller end of the reseller market, these guys get telemarketers. You just can't deal with customers, no matter how big or small, like this," he said.

"We have grown 10 percent on top of our biggest month. I have talked to a few distributors who have said June was really quiet, May was our big month and July was even quieter than June," Hartin said.

"Trade bounced back in August and it's going gang busters. Ingram first made noise about axing resellers around Christmastime and we thought, 'Fantastic - bring it on'."

George Skaf, general manager at eSys Integrated, said a lot of distributors were being exposed to reseller collapses and were being more careful about who they deal with.

"As far as we are concerned there has been a lot of impact with resellers hitting the wall, [and] companies like ours are exposed to these conditions. It brings more attention to insurance and credit companies," Skaf said.

Impact's Agamalis added that distributors often sort through their reseller lists and weed out inactive buyers. "It's really about qualifying and sorting through and starting a good, solid foundation for its reseller base rather than have shit everywhere," he said.

"Resellers need to understand that if they're being snubbed by these guys, there are still distributors here to support them," he said.


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