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What Ingram Micro Reorg. Means for AVAD, DBL
AVAD and DBL Distributing under the new Ingram Micro Consumer Electronics Division
Under the new arrangement, AVAD will join DBL Distributing in a reinvigorated Ingram Micro Consumer Electronics Division, which was loosely organized in 2004, but lost steam after Ingram acquired AVAD in 2005.
Ingram launched an ultimately lackluster CE business in 2004, but revived earlier this year, with DBL as its anchor.
DBL, a leading national distributor of CE and IT accessories, was acquired by Ingram in 2007. Integrating DBL into Ingram was not a stretch, as both distributors operate out of a single hub location, with virtually all business transacted remotely.
Both also offer highly commoditized products.
AVAD, which caters to residential home systems integrators, is a different story.
“We’ve sort of kept AVAD in a corner, doing its own things in the residential space,” says John Soumbasakis, senior VP, strategic divisions, Ingram Micro North America.
Soumbasakis, senior vice president, strategic divisions, Ingram Micro North America, will continue to lead the division, with the general managers of AVAD (Jim Annes) and DBL reporting to him.
He spoke with CE Pro yesterday about the changes.
As it happens, those changes don’t appear to be very disruptive to the custom community.
While Ingram did mention the closure of five AVAD branches -- Oregon, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Florida and Utah -- in the same press release as the reorganization, Soumbasakis says the closures had more to do with general business conditions than the new Ingram Micro CE Division.
“We weren’t anticipating making branch changes,” he says. “It’s not something we anticipate more of.”
For CE Integrators, More IT Including Apple
Beyond that, AVAD dealers should expect a harder sell on the IT side of things, as cross-selling is a key tenet of the new CE Division.
AVAD personnel will be trained to sell more routers, netbooks, gaming devices, and iPod docks to residential integrators. Likewise, integrators will receive more training on these solutions.
While AVAD dealers currently are sourcing these products from D&H Distributing and similar distributors, Soumbasakis says Ingram Micro is a more attractive partner because it offers one-stop shopping for integrators and probably better pricing, given the enormous size of Ingram -- $29.5 billion in 2009 revenues.
And then there’s Apple. Current AVAD dealers may be tempted to join Ingram just for access to that line. Ingram is the master distributor for the iconic brand.
Currently, AVAD dealers still must create a separate account at Ingram, but “it’s a lot simpler to set up” since existing profiles can be copied over,” Soumbasakis says.
Not all products available at any of the three distributors may be available to all accounts. Furthermore, AVAD won't necessarily be stocking more IT devices than usual.
CE Opportunities for IT Guys
Traditional Ingram Micro dealers, including commercial IT integrators and online retailers, will have a more readily accessible CE products available for resale.
Soumbasakis says that a survey of Ingram Micro dealers revealed about two-thirds of them are interested in products carried through AVAD – not necessarily the home controls, he explains, “more like IP-addressable speakers, receivers that require a IP address, TVs and Internet devices ….”
Naturally, he adds, DBL and AVAD vendors are salivating over the opportunity to tap Ingram’s 180,000 customers in 150 countries.
Not all vendors from AVAD, DBL and Ingram will want to open up their distribution channels, Soumbasakis says. Protected dealerships will remain protected.
RELATED: Ingram Micro's Road to CE:
AVAD, DBL Combine Under Ingram Micro CE Division
PR (July 2010): Ingram Micro Strengthens Consumer Electronics Division by Incorporating AVAD Biz
PR (Jan. 2010): Ingram Micro Announces New Consumer Electronics Division
The Ultimate Guide to Distribution 2010
Ingram Micro Acquires Net Assets of DBL Distributing (June 2007)
Wow! Ingram Micro Acquires AVAD (April 2005)
IT Distributors Chase CE Pros (May 2005)
PR (Jan. 2004): Ingram Micro Opens Doors to Consumer Electronics Manufacturers
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Article Topics
News · Distributors · Mergers and Acquisitions · Avad · Ingram Micro · Distribution · Ingram Micro Consumer Electronics Division · Dbl ·About the Author
14 Comments (displayed in order by date/time)
Well the dealer goes by the wayside again, we appreciated the knowledge and customer service that Avad provided to the Portland dealer base. Unfortunately Ingram has now decided that closing a branch adds to customer service.
The few times that we have been transferred to the other branches because of phone line overflow has not been a great experience.
At DBL we are a number not a customer
and I hope this is not there target attitude for Avad.
Not even mentioning the added cost in shipping and wait time for our product.
It’s a sad day for Oregon and southern Washington dealers.
Why bother with DBL or Avad. You can get most of the same brands or comparable brands from ADI. And with ADI I don’t have to worry about branch locations, there is over 100 of them.
ADI does not have the knowledge or assortment of products for a professional
A/V dealer. They cater to the alarm market with a/v on the side and carry products that would be consumer low line.
The knowledge is the biggest loss since most of the employees of ADI have no background and no experience in A/V.
Agreed, Avad’s personnel are highly trained and do a great job of differentiating themselves from other distributors. If this new reorganization is executed in the same fashion they’ve outlined it in this article….its going to be a disaster.
Region 6A—what makes you think it will be a disaster? It doesn’t seem like much will change.
Ingram will try to sell CE guys more IT stuff and vice versa.
5 branches were closed, true, but that was going to happen anyway. It’s sad for those affected, but the locations weren’t making money.
Does anyone really believe the BS in this article? When was the last time a LARGE company swooped in and bought a custom A/V company and didn’t change them for the worse? Need I remind everyone of what Tweeter did to Sound Advice? Ingram Micro is in the quantity business - not the quality business. If they can push 10 more widgets they will do it. Ingram Micro isn’t known for having knowledgeable sales staff or customer service. They are order takers. (Offshore order takers at that!)
6 Months from now Ingram will push their “practices” onto AVAD just like they did with DBL. They will start to demand more volume from their stores which will be closed - one by one - touting the awesomeness of “2 day shipping”. RIP AVAD. It was nice knowing you.
Ahhh such sad news, I wonder what will happen when all that is left is a handful of major retailers and the Geek Squad.
I have found avad to be somewhat knowledgablebut mostly order takers. They are not personable. The forwarding to other branches is annoying. As always there is exceptions, there are a couple good people there but they are always busy so you are forced to go the boneheads. Hopefully the smaller distributors will survive and take on new brands
I have been very disappointed with Avad. We loved the company when it was custom solutions but after Avad took over we have seen a rep once in three years, margin has been sucked out of all product offerings, and no one can answer the phone to take an order. We have found a source for everything we use to buy from them except RTI but since becoming a Control4 dealer we don’t need much of that anyway. Guess what? Everything we have started buying from others has a lot more margin! So why put up with poor services and low margin when there are companies still out there that want you to make money same as them.
P.S. These other guys know how to answer the phone.
As a FORMER Ingram Account holder I breathed a sigh of relief when AVAD finally came to Canada, and from what I have learned, the Toronto branch is now ONE OF THEIR BUSIEST OPERATIONS. I have never had any problem with the phone not be answered and my questions looked into.
Does anyone actually remember that INGRAM was actually already in the CI channel in 2004/5 on their own? I do. It was an absolute disaster! #### poor service and indifference to me right from the get go.
They would literally keep me waiting up to 2 months to try to fill a simple Samsung TV order. I am not kidding. They were making me look like an idiot to my customers.
So I finally gave up in frustration with Ingram and got a more direct account for Samsung and took Ingram right out of the loop as far as HDTV’s were concerned.
And then what happen next? Ingram gives me grief for letting my order numbers fall off and advises that I might get cut off due to their “minimum annual purchase policy”. Are they kidding I thought.. They couldn’t even fill the orders I placed!!
I saved myself any further grief by cancelling my account MYSELF.
I shudder to think what might now end up happening to AVAD.
Julie-
I think “Flip” and “Duh Dude” answered your questions.
Many of the premium AVAD products have a no-internet policy and DBL seems heavily dependent on drop-shipping online orders. Can you report on how Ingram Micro plans protect our quality lines from further commoditization?
I’m out of the Tampa branch and it doesn’t surprise me at all to see it close. Once you relied on a good salesman for his product knowledge, he was too busy to help when you walked in and then a few months later the location looked like a ghost town and he didn’t work there anymore. Then you were left with order takers…just like ADI. Tampa ADI has extremely personable reps, but very limited custom a/v products and no knowledge of how they work. AVAD’s margins were bad so why would I accept new shipping terms from a remote AVAD location when I can simply shop the entire web for better pricing?
Great !
this reminds me of Electrograph, gather all the other guys and sink them too