Midwich gains “Tier 1 brand” with Kodak deal

Imaging and print heavyweight Kodak (EK) has appointed Midwich to distribute its networked, workgroup and departmental scanners to more than 6,000 IT resellers based in the UK and Ireland.
Kodak will retain its slightly overlapping distribution agreement with Northamber for a product set which includes six models from its ScanMate i series, Truper and Sidekick models.
Competition
Jonathon Francis, Midwich’s print & imaging business manager believes that the arrival of its first “tier 1 brand” within its scanning portfolio will allow the Norfolk-based distie to expand its reach. “We have a clear strategy with Kodak to target its number one competitor [Fujitsu], focusing on reseller sectors where we have a strong reputation and informing of them of Kodak’s class leading solutions and the very real margin opportunity,” Francis adds.

The selection of Midwich, which has about 1100 active resellers a month for its scan and print products, was based on its good reputation and non-competing portfolio, according to Neil Murphy, Kodak’s UK sales manager for document imaging. “Midwich don’t sell HP or Fujitsu– its a nice fit that they can give us a focus to help us achieve market growth.” Murphy also highlights the Midwich distribution channel in Ireland, a territory that Kodak has been keen to expand within for sometime.

However, Midwich is a reseller of both Canon and Visioneer scanners which Francis was at pains to point out they will keep offering but with the aim of growing the Kodak business instead of cannibalising sales of its existing product.
New recruit
As part of the new agreement, Bob Gristock formerly Visioneer’s business development manager for Western Europe has been recruited by Kodak, but will be based at Midwich to help the distie win new scanner business. Midwich will also be running a number of exclusive channel promotions that will target certain Kodak scanners with an offer of buying a matching Kodak Inkjet printer at heavy discount.

With Midwich now offering Kodak, Cannon, Visioneer and Xerox scanner products, a rationalisation of its scanner product portfolio could well be on the cards.