Tech Data has become the latest distributor to be given itsmarching orders by Seagate Technology in a rationalisation exercise that has thenumber of EMEA partners almost halved in the past six months.
The disk drive giant has got rid of around 15 distributorsacross the region including pan-regional Avnet Technology Solutions and a bunchof country specific players in the Middle East and mainland Europe.
Talking to MicroScope, Mark Whitby, EMEA boss at Seagate,said it needed to make changes to reflect the size and shape of a recessionarymarket.
“Basically we have been reviewing our channel for the pastsix months,” he said, “there were a number of catalysts for this, not least ofall the significant reduction in the overall market.”
Demand for disk drives integrated by national PC buildershad also dropped and Seagate decided that “too many partners scrabbling aroundover too little business” was not a healthy or sustainable eco system.
“We decided in the current climate and going forward to workwith fewer partners across the region and allow partners that continue with usto have a more attractive franchise, make a reasonable margin and invest in thebusiness,” he said.
In western Europe, Seagate continues to partner IngramMicro, Bell Microproducts and Actebis and in the UK it also works with Hammer andretail focused partners CMS Peripherals and Micro P.
Whitbywas unable to talk specifically about the distributors it canned but said theactions taken would be concluded by year-end.
Volumes of business in the market did not support Seagate’schannel structure said one partner, who said the reductions in distributorswould allow it to invest.
Tech Data and Avnet refused to comment.
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