Administrators have been called in at IT distributor Tecksel. Among the companies set to be hit are Amber Technology, which last year signed up Tecksel to sell its Optoma range of products into the IT channel. Also under threat are Samsung and Unwired.
Yesterday staff was told not to report to work. Today administrators were cataloguing stock in an effort to identify the losses of the company.
During the past 18 months the company has undergone a transformation after the original founders which included Mark Kofahl sold down their shares in the business to Lee Mutimer the former National sales Manager at Tecksel. In recent months several people have deserted the company including long time employee Phil Tarbox who is now NSW Channel Manager at Samsung.
Said Mark Kofahl the former Managing Director at Techsel,”We are saddened by the news that Tecksel has been placed into administration. We started selling out of the company in 2004. We sold the rest of our shares in 2005 and today we have no involvement with the company”.
Rod Sommerich from Amber said at the time of appointing Tecksel to sell its Optoma range, “Of everyone we spoke too, Tecksel made the best case and is our primary IT distributor at this point in time.”
Commenting on Tecksel calling in the administrators, Sommerich said, “Tecksel was selling a limited range of our Optoma products, but we don’t see any issues for Ambertech in light of the news. We are sorry to hear Tecksel are going through these difficulties, though.”
When questioned as to how Ambertech may be affected financially by this, Sommerich said he can’t comment at this time.
A profile on the Tecksel web site says “Tecksel’s origins date back to early 1991 when it entered the Australian IT industry as a modem distribution company. At that time communications by modem in Australia was in it’s embryonic stage. Tecksel recognised this market was not well served in Australia and it needed to have a knowledgable and focused distribution company to provide support to the reseller base for this emerging technology.
It was therefore well placed by the mid 1990’s when the ‘Internet’ emerged from the shadows and entered the day-to-day world of business and consumer alike. Tecksel’s background in this area was immediately put to good use by the modem vendors and the resellers. From the vendor perspective Tecksel had a distribution strategy that understood the technology and how to disseminate and support it, and from the reseller’s point of view, Tecksel provides all the answers on what to them was a bewildering technology.
Tecksel currently maintains two warehouse locations. The first warehouse is located in the suburb of Arndell Park, centrally located near the new M4/M7 Interchange, the new logistics cetre of Sydney – New South Wales, the second is located in Herston, Queensland, which was opened in March of 2000. As such all locations are well positioned to all services and facilities to serve Australia’s IT markets.
In today’s rapidly moving I.T. industry Tecksel identified that resellers need to not just buy and sell ‘boxes’, but to be placed to offer the correct products and solutions to meet their customers requirements. The resellers also need to be able identify any future sales potential of I.T. products to their existing customers and to identify new customers as technology becomes available. To assist in this process Tecksel conducts regular training seminars and product launches throughout the year to train and inform the reseller community in the technologies of today and tomorrow.
By 1997, Tecksel diversified further to become Australia’s premier distributor of Netgear range of networking products. Tecksel is now able to connect people to the outside world, it as well as connect them internally. 1998 became another milestone year for Tecksel with the addition to its product stable of the innovative and environmental friendly Kyocera Mita range of ECOSYS printers as well as the world-leaders in power technology, Eaton Powerware. Now, no matter how companies communicate, either electronically or by conventional printed matter – Tecksel will be distributing the products that make it happen.
The director of Tecksel, Leigh Mutimer, is committed to ensuring that the expectations of its business partners and customers are not only met, but that they are exceeded. Therefore if resellers are thinking technology, they are thinking Tecksel.
Among Tecksel vendors are: Asus, Avocent, Benelec,Brother International, Bullguard, Dynalink (Askey), Eaton Powerware, Herma, Jackson Industries, LevelOne, Maestro, Memory from Apacer, Netgear, NetLeverage, Optoma Technology, Panasonic, Unwired and Xitel.
