Massive channel change – Dicker Data NZ plans explained

David Dicker spoke exclusively with The Channel to explain his firm’s plans for New Zealand.

While Dicker Data isn’t a well-known distributor in New Zealand, it’s a powerhouse of the Australian IT distribution scene. The "big three" in Australia are Dicker Data, Ingram Micro and Synnex.

Dicker was founded in 1978 and is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange -  its shares up are 57% over the last year and it is run by David Dicker, Chairman and CEO out of Sydney.

The company has just announced the acquisition of Express Data in Australia & New Zealand. Up until this announcement the company had no New Zealand presence.

“We’ve got a detailed strategy around this purchase, it’s not been an overnight decision” says David Dicker, Chairman and CEO.

“The New Zealand unit of Express Data has good revenue and an attractive part of the deal was that there is virtually no product overlap between the two businesses”

Full integration of Express Data on both sides of the Tasman is the plan. That see’s the Express Data name disappearing quickly.

The New Zealand business will be run by someone local, a New Zealander, who will most likely report directly to Chris Price, Dicker’s Commercial Director in Sydney.

Dicker’s plan is to unify as many agencies as possible across the Tasman. This would involve major upheaval as almost all of Dicker’s current Australian agencies are sitting with other distributors.

Here is the list of brands Dicker won’t have in NZ, but would want for full trans-Tasman unification:

From Ingram Micro: APC, ASUS, Belkin, Eaton, HP, Kingston, Lenovo, Netgear, StorageCraft, Tandberg Data, Targus & Toshiba

From Synnex: ASUS, Kingston, Lenovo, Netgear & Targus

From Exeed: Belkin, HP, Netgear & Watchguard

From Westcon: APC, Imation & Symantec

From Dove: ASUS, Imation & Sony

What makes Dicker Data different we asked: “We just do it better, it’s not a complicated business” says Dicker