Digital Equipment Corp has appointed Brentford, Middlesex-based Orion Media Marketing Plc as its first European reseller for consumable products. The agreement, which covers all DEC-branded supplies from magnetic media to printer ribbons, cables and adaptors, is soon to be followed by a similar deal with a distributor in the north of the UK, says Orion’s Damien Griffin. This pilot scheme is for the moment restricted to the UK, although consumable product distributors on the continent will be watching closely during Orion’s 21-month trial period which has just begun. For Orion’s part, the company will be disappointed if it doesn’t achieve an additional UKP1m in turnover from the new deal. Previously, DEC’s outlets for its consumable products were restricted to the DECdirect channels and the limited number of authorised hardware dealers. The latter, Griffin points out, aren’t particularly motivated to sell supplies, since these are worth comparatively little next to huge computer system deals. This, coupled with the lack of availability of the supplies at the dealer level, has led to imports of grey consumables to satisfy user demand. According to Orion, this grey trading has taken 40% of the UKP20m-a-year UK market for DEC supplies. Orion Media Marketing claims to have been pushing for this deal for some time. The reseller, established in 1984, distributes consumables for 3M, IBM, Oki, Mannesmann Tally, Sony, Star and Genicom.
