Steljes has ended its distribution deal with Panasonic. This follows Steljes’ partings with a number of brands including Sony, Samsung and, BenQ. The specialist education and public sector distributor told AVNews it had reviewed its portfolio as part of its overall company strategy and this had “led to mutual agreement to cease trading” with these Brands. This year has seen significant restructuring of the Steljes business, including recentralising activities such as distribution,training and software, which had been evolved to separate limited companies, and senior management redundancies. The company’s Statement claimed: “Steljes wants to build strategic relationships with vendors who can offer exclusive and profitable propositions allowing the company to use its expertise to bring innovative and unique solutions to key markets including the education, corporate and public sectors.” Steljes also says it remains committed to its on-going brand partners, which include Toshiba, which it is developing a wall-mounted short-throw solution, InFocus and NEC as well as Smart. Neil Colquhoun, European sales manager for Panasonic says sales through Steljes had “declined over the last three years to a negligible level”. Colquhoun says they have no plans to appoint a replacement to join Midwich, Owl, Imago and PSCo. Colquhoun says they prefer to invest in existing distribution partners rather than looking for new ones for the sake of it.
