News

Westcon Group unites French subsidiaries

Networking distributor Westcon Group has assured French resellers that it's 'business as usual' after consolidating its local Comstor and Westcon brands under the 'Westcon Group France' banner. The Comstor brand name, along with the Cisco-focused unit's go-to-market initiatives OneVoice and OneDefense - as well as the Westcon brand name with its VoicePoint programme - will remain in place. 'Resellers won't see any real difference,' emphasises Thomas Schoon, VP marketing Europe.

The local back office functions of Comstor and Nortel/Avaya-focused sister company Westcon will, however, now be fused together, following similar moves earlier this year in the UK and Benelux. Schoon explains that the process of combining back-office functions began when Barry Shakespeare took over as VP European sales and operations last year. The objective is to strip out costs and boost efficiency. 'There's no need to have two back offices for order processing,' says Schoon.

But it's unlikely that Germany - the distributor's second largest European market behind the UK - will follow suit. 'We don't have a defined plan for Germany yet as our two local offices are a long way from each other,' explains Schoon.

Former Comstor France boss Fabrice Tusseau will head up the enlarged French operation, while former Westcon France top dog Olivier Frerebeau moves up to the newly-created position of European new business development director. 'Frerebeau will look for business opportunities in terms of geographic and technology expansion,' reveals Schoon, who adds that eastern Europe is an 'interesting market' for Westcon Group.

Westcon has added several 'affinity' vendors to its go-to-market programmes this year, including data encryption vendor SafeBoot and Sony with its video conferencing solutions. Frerebeau will be in charge of forging ties with vendors in further new markets, including the emerging IP video and physical security space. 'We're constantly looking at addressing new solutions,' says Schoon.