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Ingram Micro’s new UK managing director, Brent McCarty, intends to expand the distributor’s value-added offering as he looks to grow the company’s market share.
In an interview with PCR, McCarty noted that Ingram’s share of the UK market was not as extensive as in other territories and that offering value could be a key driver in gaining traction.
“I think that we can do a much better job in servicing our customers from an executional perspective. It doesn’t have to be a pricing game, it has to come down to making sure we’re delivering a great experience,” said McCarty.
“We’re currently focusing on the value that we can bring to the more comprehensive categories, including cloud services, mobility, unified communications, and pro-AV.”
He added, however, that the volume sales model would still play a critical part of Ingram’s day-to-day business.
“I think we can do a much better job in servicing our customers.”
Brent McCarty, Ingram Micro
“We’re still going to drive our business through the volume model that we have but the value business will help us to grow our profitability – and enable our partners.”
These comments reflect a wider trend within distribution which has seen some companies realign their core businesses to better serve the demand for added value further down the supply chain.
In January this year Computer 2000’s managing director Peter Hubbard noted that “value-added distribution is a recession-friendly business” as the drive by partners and customers to remove costs from their own operations presented opportunities for distributors with scalable service offerings.
Gem Distribution has also been expanding in this area too, having added specialist divisions such as Gem Logistics and Gem Creative to better serve its partner ecosystem.
It’s possible that value-added services could be a battleground for the coming year as various distributors look to gain profitability by investing in these areas.
