Three years after shutting its South Island warehouse, Ingram Micro is opening a new facility in Christchurch.
Wellington enterprise sales manager Maarten van Hattum says the decision to re-establish the warehouse was driven by rising freight costs and the desire to service its South Island customers better.
When the original warehouse closed in late 2005, the company claimed the move was the result of feedback from its customers. But many South Island resellers contacted by Reseller News at the time reacted angrily saying they were never consulted about the closure.
The company is looking to open the warehouse on September 1 and plans it to be fully operational by October 1, says van Hattum.
“It will mainly be a bulk warehouse with fast moving goods, not a full warehouse like we had in the past. We have listened to the concerns of South Island resellers. We need to communicate closely with them to make sure we have the right type of stock in the warehouse.”
He adds the new warehouse will be based near Wigram airbase and the company plans to add a demonstration centre for servers and storage kits. Three staff will be appointed to run the warehouse. Ingram Micro already has a sales team in Christchurch.
Steve Gibbons of Christchurch reseller Gibbray Technologies says he is glad the company has decided to come back to the city.
“South Island resellers would rather deal with someone who has a local presence. The one proviso I have would be that they keep sufficient stock of the products they sell the most of, otherwise we would have to wait for internal stock transfers.”
Gibbons says Ingram Micro has lost business to local distributor Dove Electronics since its exit.
