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RSS feedsData management company Iomega has dropped Ideal Hardware as a distribution partner. Iomega, which last week launched a new range of 3.5in magneto optical drives, ended the partnership last month.
Seamus Twohig, relationship manager at Ideal, said the alliance was unfruitful and that the "race was on" for both partners to break the partnership.
"We only had a four per cent market share with Iomega, and the margins were tiny. I am not disappointed that we are no longer working together," he said. "We weren't executing on their products, and they weren't helping us to execute them. The break-up had been a long time coming."
Simon Chamberlain, European sales director at Iomega, agreed. "We both recognised that to be mutually successful required Iomega to ship large volumes of products and for Ideal to make acceptable profit," he said.
"If volumes with any of our distributors fall and profit becomes unacceptably low then we find the focus begins to fall accordingly. It's our intention to generate business at second-tier level, whilst leaving resellers to decide where to purchase that product," he added.
Stuart Borst, head of product management at CMS Peripherals, a long-time Iomega distributor, said he was "extremely happy" with his company's relationship with Iomega, and believed that it supported CMS fully.
"We have partnered with Iomega for eight or nine years now," he said. "Everyone would always like better margins, but we find them acceptable, and with the CD-RW and Zip products, they cover a large area of the market with a product that suits everyone."
First published in Computer Reseller News
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