Automated information and data capture provider Intermec has ended its A/NZ distribution relationship with Sektor after the distie signed a deal with Intermec rival Motorola Solutions.
Intermec announced the partnership's termination via a brief press release issued on Friday, a move which Sektor said took it by surprise.
"I'm not sure what purpose advertising [the termination] really serves them," Sektor MD Cameron Arnold said. "They're a bit of a weird mob."
Intermec managing director Tony Repaci told CRN the goal was to inform the partner community of the mutually-agreed decision.
"Sektor announced they were taking on Motorola as a vendor partner," Repaci told CRN. "It just got a bit crowded. They're a small, family organisation and we needed a distributor with a bit more focus on Intermec and the Intermec branding.”
Sektor’s Arnold told CRN a relationship with Motorola added a lot more value to its customers.
"Intermec and Motorola are fierce rivals [in a] pretty niche market. As soon as we announced we'd taken on Motorola distribution, we knew it was just a matter of days before they came back to us and told us [the partnership] was going to be terminated,” he said.
"We always knew they would never have accepted us having distribution from both products, they would have seen it as fundamentally a conflict of interest. Either they were going to tell us to bugger off, or we would have ended up walking away from it anyway."
Arnold said he was "exceptionally pleased" with the success of Sektor's relationship with Motorola thus far.
"Motorola's suite of products is highly complementary to our core channel partner’s requirements," Arnold said. "We felt that a relationship with Motorola added a lot more value and scope to the solutions we offer our customers,"
Intermec - Avnet partnership grows
Repaci said Intermec would continue to strengthen its alliance with existing distribution partner Avnet.
"They've been a fantastic distributor for us over many years and we're going to be doubling down our activity with them," Repaci said.
"They're running a couple of programs for us at the moment which we're very excited about – one around our maintenance programs and a second program they're running for us around our new printer range."
Repaci said there was no bad blood between Sektor and Intermec.
"We have a healthy regard for each other. There was no animosity or negative ill-will towards the company. It was just a business decision that both companies made."
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