Here's a weird thing. The computer components distie Microtronica doesn't want to be a distributor anymore. Not in the UK, at any rate, where it has told PC builders that they must go to Scan Computers, the computer retailer, for their supplies.

In other words, Scan will be a sub-distributor, saving Microtronica logistic headaches and resellers a bit on shipping costs. This is what happens when you centralise distribution operations in Frankfurt, and diesel prices sky-rocket. So Scan will pick up some trade revenues at the skinniest of margins, and Microtronica, part of the giant Arrow Electronics group, can still say it is in the UK.

Mark Warren, general sales manager at Microtronica, told CRN today: “It has taken Microtronica 10 or 11 months to get where it needed to be. Now it can look at moving forward and taking market share.”

That is an intriguing claim - winning market share by fleeing the country. Is Scan so much much better at wholesaling than Microtronica?

Time, as journalists say when they don't know the answer, will tell. ®