Scholastic ends technology distribution of Quark, Nuance, Avid, Logitech, Corel, others

Scholastic, the global distributor of books and education supplies to schools, is winding down the technology distribution segment of its Australian business, which once supported vendors such as Avid, Corel, Logitech, Nuance and Quark.

CRN understands the technology distribution unit was unique to Scholastic Australia, and not part of the US-based global company's core business. Scholastic declined to comment.

A master distributor for products across IT, retail, telco, online, Apple and education channels nationally, Scholastic Technology at one point had distribution partnerships with more than 30 brands, including Pinnacle, Roxio and Wacom.

It is understood that Scholastic is still representing a pared-back range of brands as it winds down the business unit. Many vendors have already sought out alternative distributors since being informed about the impending shutdown earlier this year.

Quark distribution rights have been appointed to Cherri International, a Brisbane-based reseller that caters to printers, graphic designers, advertising agencies and the creative sector. 

Cherri chief executive Mark Wren, also a printer by trade, said QuarkXPress coming on board was a logical fit for the company, as the software had long been a “rock” in his industry. Wren adds QuarkXPress to his existing offering of Adobe, Corel and ACDSee products.

“We have been using the QuarkXPress software ourselves for 28 years. We see the fact that the distributor also uses the software as being an advantage,” he said.

Quark desktop business unit director Matthias Guenther was confident Cherri would do grow the vendor's footprint in the region.

“We recently partnered with Cherri International, a new reseller for us that is very dedicated to our market and audience, and we are always looking for great partners like Cherri to raise the visibility of QuarkXPress,” Guenther said.

Nuance, which develops the Dragon line of speech-recognition software, has switched up its distribution channel in the past 12 months, signing with Dicker Data in 2015, ahead of the Scholastic wind-down announcement, followed by PrintSolv earlier this year.

“The requirements of any software distributor in today’s technology landscape are dramatically different to what they once were – innovation in supply, delivery and customer service is key for software distributors to be able to add value to the channel.”

Australian software distributor Mindscape has also been appointed a QuarkXPress reseller, in addition to gaining distribution rights for Corel, according to Mindscape business unit manager Tonia Velasco.

"Mindscape have picked up the entire Corel catalogue from Scholastic including Corel, Pinnacle and Winzip along with QuarkXPress. Mindscape extends their distribution partners to 13 publishers which already includes Nuance, Roxio, Nero and Acronis," she said.