Epson triples POS channel

Printer vendor Epson has tripled its Point-of-Sale (POS) products channel in Australia, upgrading two sub-distributors to full partners.

Jason Whiley, business manager for the business systems division at Epson Australia, said the vendor had signed Queensland's Pos Pos and Victoria's Unique Microdesign -- two distributors that had been sub-distributors for Epson master distributor DH Technology.

"DH Technology will continue to be a national distributor for us, but we have signed two more, for various reasons," Whiley said.

DH Technology had been Epson's only POS gear distributor here for the last 12 years.

Whiley said that, although DH Technology had done a 'great' job, Epson wanted to better support its resellers. 'We want to open up distribution of our POS products to increase penetration for our POS products and give our resellers a broader range,' he said.

Unique Microdesign and Pos Pos both offered national coverage from their respective centres and had done a good job building Epson sales as sub-distributors, Whiley added.

Epson's Whiley would not be drawn on how much POS sales might be expected to increase following the signing of two more distributors. However, there was definitely room to grow in that market, Whiley said.

Dominic Corkeron, national sales manager at Pos Pos, said Epson's POS channel did not compete with its broadbased computing channel. It had access to different products from those of its PC channel, he said.

Pos Pos had 500 resellers on its books across Australia and branch offices in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth, he said.

"Our customer base ranges from individual integrators, right down to the one-man bands, right up to Data#3, Volante and NetOptions," Corkeron said. "We've been supplying Epson for about six years and we've doubled our business every year for the past three years."

Pos Pos had grown from $2.5 million in turnover three years ago to an expected $8.5 million for this financial year, he said.

"Part of the growth is our expansion into other states in Australia, concentrating our business on the wholesale model," Corkeron said. "So we're not competing against our resellers and integrators."

He said some distributors had been dividing their resources between retail and wholesale. Specialisation could be a better bet, he hinted.

Pos Pos also distributed for Europe-based Custom Engineering, Tipro and PSC, Corkeron said.