Synnex reconfirmed it's stance that it does not, and will not, sell direct during its recent Synnex Synergy 14 Roadshow, with New Zealand country manager Richard Harri taking to the stage to proclaim that the company doesn't even want the public to know it exists.

“Even at this roadshow, we didn't extend the invitation to end users – we don't even want them to know we exist,” he says.

Harri went on to hit out at companies which sell to resellers while also competing with them.

“It is important to keep in mind when you purchase through authorised distribution that there are a variety of customer partner programmes that provide rewards and rebates that will get paid directly to you from the manufacturer. For example Intel and WD have such programmes.

“If instead of buying through authorised distribution, you buy from another company that competes with you, they are members of these same customer partner programmes and then you are simply making their numbers – and hence their rebates – even bigger, fattening their profits which will even further potentially damage your business in the long run.

“These competitors don't report sell through back to the vendor, so as far as the vendor is concerned, your company may not even exist as you are flying under the radar so it makes it hard for them to justify investing in your business or even visiting.”

The roadshow, which featured updates from Synnex vendors, including a Windows 10 preview from Microsoft, prompted record turnouts around New Zealand.

Harri says 740 people attended across the six venues, including more than 360 in Auckland – despite power cuts the weekend preceding the Monday evening event.

“The numbers were very robust indeed,” he adds.

Harri also outlined the company's philosophy about business, from treating people well and having the entire company, including call centre, returns and accounts, based in New Zealand, through to the experiential promotions the company has become known for.

“Some of the promotions our team have come up with are as far ranging as diving with sharks at Kelly Tarltons, to soaring with the eagles at the Drury gliding club.

“Synnex value and reward our customers with some of the most unique and exciting promotions around. Other activities have included Ferrari racing, sailing, hang gliding. Even trips to Tonga to go Marlin fishing to 'catch the big one', [and trips to] New York, Rio and Antarctica have been given to provide our customers with 'once in a lifetime' memories,” he says.

The company is preparing for additional growth by investing in additional racking and re-racking half of its main warehouse to realise additional capacity of 30% to ensure the distributor can keep up with demand.

“The faster an order can be processed, the later a customer can place an order and still receive the shipment overnight, the more cost effective the freight charge and the absolute accuracy when processing orders, can provide customers with a competitive advantage,” Harri says.

“Synnex self-insure our customers which means we can be more flexible when providing additional credit and we can be more competitive on our selling price as we don;'t have to involve a third-party insurance company that require a premium to be paid on available open balance.”