Indigo still in the pink says Hewlett-Packard

Hewlett-Packard's (HP) Indigo business has benefited from its move away

Hewlett-Packard’s (HP) Indigo business, which manufactures digital printing presses, has benefited from its move away from a 100 per cent direct model, the vendor has claimed.

Back in April, HP Indigo appointed VAR Danwood (CRN, 25 April) as a channel partner, and has recently taken on Irish-based VAR Typetec and The Digital People.

“The choice was whether to increase HP Indigo’s direct salesforce or go the complimentary channel route,” said Adrian Stark, UK & Ireland country manager at HP Indigo."

“I had 16 sales people selling direct in the UK and felt it was necessary to add a layer of channel to compliment the direct salesforce. My direct sales people only sell in the commercial print market so I felt channel partners could open up new markets for us."

“Growth this year will be around 42 per cent compared to last year. We have got quite an aggressive growth strategy; I want to expand the business next year by a further 32 per cent and will be looking to take on another two channel partners. I’m aiming to get 20 per cent of our business coming through the channel by the end of 2006,” added Stark.

Hewlett-Packard acquired Indigo in 2001 for $882m.

Adam Poole, head of professional marketing at rival vendor Canon, said an indirect strategy at the high end was nothing new to them.

“We’ve always had a dual-line strategy for all our business products. We go through a direct sales channel and also through reseller partners for our printing presses. We have seen significant growth in our digital print products,” he claimed.