Bringing up the rear
A survey of 366 EMEA distributors attending the DISTREE XXL 2008 channel event in Barcelona, which starts on 27th January, has revealed that the UK and Ireland is lagging behind the rest of Europe in terms of sales growth at its distributors. The total sales of those surveyed increased 11.5 per cent between 2006 and 2007 in the UK and Ireland region, while the average for the whole EMEA region was 30 per cent.
The breakdown for the other regions was as follows (all percentages): Central & Eastern Europe (CEE) 61.1, Nordics 49.5, Maghreb region 43.6, Baltic States 40.2, Southern Europe 33.3, Benelux 22.1, Dach 17.6. The total value of collective sales was over €37 billion (£28 billion).
If, like me, you don’t know what half these terms refer to, you might find this key useful: CEE – Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia; Maghreb – North Africa; Benelux – Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg; Dach – Germany, Austria, Switzerland. So I guess France must be Southern Europe.
Other interesting findings included the fact that over four fifths of their collective turnover was derived from distribution activities, as opposed to PC assembly operations, retail activities and direct sales to end-users. In terms of destination, two fifths of sales went to dealers resellers, a fifth to the retail channel, 14 per cent to ‘assemblers’ and a tenth to the VAR channel.
DISTREE XXL 2008 is designed to get distributors and vendors together as opposed to the other big pan-European channel event, RetailVision Europe, whose primary function is to allow vendors and distributors access to retailers. Having expanded from the original, emerging market only, DISTREE concept last year, this is the second DISTREE XXL event and will feature a keynote speech from Isabel Aguilera, CEO of Google, Spain and Portugal.
