In a surprise move, distributor Hugh Symons Group (HSG) has dropped four major vendors as it switches its business focus away from branded notebooks, PCs and peripherals.
The firm last week revealed its intention to concentrate on more profitable HSG divisions, such as Communications, Wireless Data Services and Information Management. It will also invest more in two emerging HSG divisions: Telecoms, a division launched last year, and Managed Services.
As a result, the firm will no longer be working with Toshiba, Asus, Palm and JVC. This will affect up to 47 jobs.
Daniel Belton, marketing director at HSG, said the decision was based on the fact that notebooks, PCs and peripherals are too commoditised.
"This was not an easy decision, but we could not keep chasing high-volume, low-margin business," he said. "We decided to withdraw from the market and concentrate on lower-volume, higher-margin products."
Belton added that the firm has been considering the move for the past six months.
"Both our reseller and vendor partners have been sympathetic and understand our reasons for making this decision," he said.
Steve Muttram, managing director of rival distributor Portable Add-Ons, said his firm will capitalise on the move.
"I was surprised to hear about this. However, we have never seen HSG as a true competitive threat; we operated in the system integrator and corporate reseller space, and it has been more in the e-tail and retail telephony channel," he said. "It is our aim to take up as much of the slack as we can."
Neil Bramley, B2B channels and Ireland manager at Toshiba, which last week appointed Micro Peripherals as a new distributor, said: "We wish HSG every success with its refocused business and understand its decision."
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