Synnex takes national Epson distribution

Printer-maker Epson Australia has lifted Victoria's Synnex to national hardware distributor status -- taking Digiland's role in a deal tipped to double Synnex' revenue.

The deal makes Synnex Epson's second national hardware distributor in Australia, focusing on volume inkjet, laser and dot matrix printers.

Frank Sheu, managing director at Synnex, said the increased status would boost its printer and scanner sales 150 percent and multiply overall revenue by 2.5.

“The only other national distributor they have had to date was TechPac and we have been sub-distributor for Epson for two years,” he said. “We are growing our business together.”

Mike Pleasants, director of marketing communications at Epson Australia, could not be reached for comment. But he said in a statement that Synnex had taken the role “vacated by Digiland, which has ceased to distribute Epson's peripheral products”.

Consumables distributor Daisytek also formerly distributed Epson gear before its liquidation mid-year.

Sheu said Synnex had already doubled its Melbourne team to “more than 100”, in preparation for the deal. The distributor had a total 200 staff nationwide, he said.

The distributor was shifting Epson printers and scanners to 400 or 500 resellers, he said, but dealt with some 3,000 on its books overall every month.

“So we expect to grow this number to double [to 800 or 1,000 resellers] in six months' time. There's a whole kind of synergy we can leverage,” Sheu said.

Synnex last month opened a $1 million build-to-order facility in Melbourne which is also expected to substantially grow the business. Sheu told CRN at the time that the PC factory was one of the most advanced in Australia and would compete directly with industry behemoths such as Dell and Acer.

Meanwhile, the US-based company in September announced an intention to list in North America. Globally, sales increased 9.1 percent to US$1.84 billion for the six months ended 31 May over the same period last year. Earnings jumped four percent to US$13.7 million.

Sheu said the company's success was partly due to its supply chain strategy. “Our supply chain really adds a lot of value in distribution for some items. We adopt a multiple warehouse capacity. We have a warehouse in every state.”

Adopting a “just-in-time” supply approach meant customers could save delivery costs since stock did not have to come from so far away -- a factor which Sheu said was especially important for low-priced consumables and components.

“Inkjet printers might be about $59, plus $5 for the freight. So you've added more than 10 percent already,” Sheu said.

Further, demand for printers and scanners was increasing as end-users found more uses for digital technologies at home and in business. “People are moving to digital-everything, moving digital content, using pictures produced by digital cameras or other devices,” Sheu said.

Epson's Pleasants claimed in his statement that there were no other changes to Epson's consumables arrangements.