BBC puts Northamber under spotlight

Northamber's shares lost about six per cent of their value one day after the airing of a television programme about the company's management practices.

The distributor's shares fell nine pence to 149.5 pence by closing on 10 February. It stood at 148.5 pence on 15 February. Northamber was the subject of a BBC fly-on-the-wall documentary, Workers at War, shown on 9 February, which focused on staff who work in a stressful environment.

In one scene, Adrian Cobley-Webster, training manager at Northamber, was seen telling staff: 'Thinking is dangerous. When you think, negative pictures start coming into your mind.'

Referring to the distributor's competitive atmosphere, Cobley-Webster told the interviewer: 'We have known people wanting to have a fight in the car park at 6pm. Of course they do - it's business.'

Henry Matthews, managing director of Northamber, was seen telling Cobley-Webster to give a high flying salesman two months in the warehouse as 'punishment', when he complained about the termination of his brother's contract.

One source said: 'It has made the rest of us in this industry look like fools by association.' Another source added: 'Northamber didn't do itself any favours. If I was looking to appoint it as a distributor, I would have reconsidered.'

In a statement, Alex Homes, executive producer of Workers at War, said: 'As a matter of courtesy, the producer showed the film to contributors prior to the end of the editing process. Contributors' comments were taken into consideration. However, no changes were made solely as a result of representations made by contributors.'

Northamber was unavailable for comment.

DISTRIBUTOR FORCED TO SHARE AS/400 SUPPLY FRANCHISE

Northamber has lost its exclusive grip on the IBM AS/400 distribution franchise following the vendor's decision to push the mid-range servers through its two-tier channel.

Ingram Micro, Sphinx-CST and Bytech have all taken on the IBM AS/400 150 and 170 entry-level ranges, effectively ending Northamber's sole distribution deal. The contracts came into effect from 15 February, following the official launch of the range by IBM a week earlier.

It is understood that IBM will introduce higher level AS/400s to distribution once it is satisfied with its expanded channel's record with its initial products.

IBM's decision to sell the mid-range through the channel comes at time of increasing commoditisation of hardware and amid the threat of Compaq's new-found Alpha capability.

Simon Aldous, director of Ingram's enterprise solutions group, claimed IBM was also considering AS/400 channel assembly. 'That is a conversation going on at the moment,' he said.

Mike Briercliffe, managing director of Sphinx, said it was looking to recruit up to 60 additional AS/400 resellers. He played down suggestions of taking business from Northamber, adding that the success of the AS/400 in distribution would depend on how it was sold to resellers.

'Access to the range is available to all four distributors but we'll do more business at the high end while Northamber and Ingram will do more at the lower end.'

Northamber was unavailable for comment.