HTC has dropped Ingram Micro as its local distributor in South Africa. The Taiwanese company has decided yet again to have a direct presence in the country, working with a fulfilment partner, Brightstar.

“It is not the first time that HTC has come back into the country and there have been a few inconsistencies around it,” says Douglas Jewson, HTC’s newly appointed country manager.

The company first entered the market with distributor Leaf International more than 10 years ago, before coming in directly by opening its own offices in 2012.

After a short period running its own operation here, HTC pulled out of the country and appointed Ingram Micro to act as a distributor.

Prior to joining HTC, Jewson was Cell C’s commercial executive for the Gauteng region. He also spent a number of years with BlackBerry in Southern Africa. He was head of retail for BlackBerry in South Africa and spent four years at Nokia, where he was senior account manager for operator strategy.

Jewson says HTC intends adopting a “simple and straightforward” approach to the South African market this time around. “We are going to work very closely with the operators and take a phased approach with regards to how we bring HTC back into the country.”

He says the company will focus only on smartphones and will compete with other “tier two” brands such as Sony and LG Electronics.

“Our goal is to get to about 5% of the South African smartphone market over the next 24 months.”