Asbis alludes to WD Middle East tie-up

Components distributor Asbis has not ruled out the possibility of distributing Western Digital hard drives in the Middle East after recently penning an agreement covering the European and CIS markets.

Although a tie-up announced by both parties last week didn’t specifically refer to the Middle East region, Asbis’ Dubai-based operation is set to play a major role in getting the partnership off the ground by overseeing the CIS and Turkey part of the deal.

Channel Middle East understands the contract applies to all emerging markets in EMEA — with the exception of Egypt and Saudi Arabia — and while that is unlikely to be activated locally at the moment there is a possibility it could in the future.

“We are not going to start the Middle East operation now — we will see what is happening with other markets and then we will decide,” said Hesham Tantawi, VP for the Middle East and Africa at Asbis. “Nothing has been finalised yet, it is under discussion. But the Middle East team is handling Turkey and the CIS, and we have already started activities there.”

Asbis Middle East already has a comprehensive hard drive portfolio that includes vendors such as Samsung, Seagate and Toshiba. For Western Digital to be added to that list, the vendor itself would also have to agree that it makes sense for its own regional strategy. At present, WD has an established distribution network consisting of eSys, FDC, Metra and Redington.

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