Ex-Digiland GM back in distribution

Skaf – who resigned his position at Digiland in mid-March – has been charged with growing eSys local distribution operation, which currently only has one agency in Australia, drive manufacturer Western Digital.

Speaking to iTnews, Skaf said he will look forge new agencies here with some of eSys' global vendors which include the likes of drive makers Seagate and Maxtor, motherboard manufacturers MSI, Gigabyte and chip maker AMD.

Skaf said the distributor has been in Lane Cove, Sydney for the past 12 months and has spent that time “solidifying its base here.” Skaf added that he had been “looking forward to establishing a position like this” where he could have full autonomy over the workings of the local operation.

eSys will open an office in Victoria next week, Perth by the end of this month and Brisbane within three months, Skaf said. A local website is also in the process of being finalised, he said.

The eSys US-website says the distribution also has agencies with Viewsonic and LG in the monitor market, SMC, Accton and Surecom in the networking arena, UPS vendors Tripp Lite and APC, modem manufacturer Aztech and memory manufacturer Hynix. It was unclear whether Skaf will also look at forge new agencies with these companies here. Headquartered in Singapore, eSys also has offices in Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

It claims to be the largest distributor of hard disk drives (HDD) in the Asia-Pacific region, securing about 15 percent of the Asian HDD distribution market, around 15 percent in Europe and globally around 10 percent based on Q2 estimates.

Skaf's departure followed the resignation of Digiland MD Chin Nam Low. Digiland lost $4.375 million in the half year to 31 December 2002.