Global technology distributor Ingram Micro confirmed on Thursday that it will close its South African office, citing the “relatively small size of the operation” and “limited” product lines for having influenced the decision.
TechCentral first reported on Wednesday about the company’s intention to shut the South African business, after receiving information from two sources that employees had been advised on Tuesday before about the closure.
In a statement, Ingram Micro said it is “changing its operating model to better serve the South African market”.
“The relatively small size of its operations and the limited number of product lines available have impacted the company’s ability to expand its offerings within the country, limiting the solutions it is able to provide its customers and affecting the company’s success in South Africa,” it said.
“Based on its belief that a different operational model is required to successfully serve the South Africa market, Ingram Micro has started consultations under section 189 of the Labour Relations Act with its employees to effect a proposed winding down of its operations in South Africa by consensus,” it added.
“Assuming all regulatory and legal clearances are received, the company expects to wind down its South Africa offices by 1 December 2019, and is working with regulatory authorities to help ensure a smooth transition for impacted associates. The company is providing career counseling, severance and other customary benefits to the associates.”
‘Difficult decision’
It said it plans to continue to serve South Africa from Europe, which will allow it to “leverage broader vendor relationships … to provide a more robust suite of offerings into the South African market”. Some other parts of the business will be served from the United Arab Emirates.
“These are always difficult decisions to take. However, we believe we will be able to better serve the IT needs of our customer and vendor partners in South Africa from our European and UAE operations,” said Ali Baghdadi, senior vice president and regional CEO. “With this move, we will be able to leverage established best practices and current vendor relationships, particularly in the fast-growing data capture/point of sale and cloud markets, to offer an expanded suite of products and solutions to our South African customers.”
The company first entered South Africa in 2007 in partnership with MB Technologies (today known as Tarsus) to distribute IT components and products to value-added resellers, system integrators and other customers across sub-Saharan Africa. — (c) 2019 NewsCentral Media
