Lee spills the beans on Anyware departure
- 08 March, 2010 15:19
- Comments 3
Dissent with his business partner and a successful online retail venture have led Anyware’s co-founder, Victor Lee, to leave the distribution space.
Lee began his distribution trade as Elsa Australian in 1996 but later adopted the Anyware moniker with Garrison Huang.
Now Lee has signed off ownership of his Sydney and Brisbane branch to Huang and an internal restructure is flagged for March 15.
Having established an online electronics retail company, Mwave, in 2006 with a relative, Lee will focus his attention on that business.
He cited dissent with Huang regarding Anyware’s future played a part in his departure from the distributor.
“We had been partners for 12 years and obviously we carry different opinions and views on certain things,” Lee said. “The longer we are together, the more differences surfaced.”
Huang had denied rumours the pair did not get along and Lee maintains their friendship is still intact despite the split.
When asked how their strategies for Anyware differed, Lee claimed he was pushing for change while Huang preferred to keep the current business model.
“Things in the industry are changing and as niche player, Anyware really needed to review itself to adapt to those kinds of changes,” Lee said. “We had a golden period in the past few years and [Huang] likes to continue with the current trend.”
Mwave generated $10 million in profit last financial year, which, according to Lee, was comparable to his former Sydney and Brisbane Anyware offices.
He stressed there were no operational conflicts between Mwave and Anyware during the time when he worked on both sides.
“I personally didn’t hear any resellers complain and operationally I didn’t give either company any special treatment,” Lee said.
Several key Anyware staff have also moved with Lee, including general manager, Patrick Managreve, former sales manager, Kaine Dennehy, and marketing manager, Steve Grant.
Lee plans to continue the success of Mwave and has ambitions to make it the biggest online electronics retail player in Australia.
Mwave is currently working with a handful of major distributors, including Ingram Micro and Synnex.
Nominations for the 2012 ARN IT Industry Awards open on Tuesday, June 12.
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Comments
Hmmmm
Mr.Lee should be careful, there are lots of stories around about his dealings....anyone want to ask him about Logitech?
Derek
$10 mil profit? Turnover must be bigger than Synnex or Altech, given the margins they work on....believable?
Have to wonder how much the ACCC compliance order issued a few weeks ago is going to eat into that:
http://www.accc.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/918525/fromItemId/142?pageDefinitionItemId=16940
Boris B
Obviously a typo re: profit, c'mon ARN lift your game!
What a beat-up, have heard this was rectified nearly a year ago and its only gov't copywriters only posting this now!
Great to see our tax dollars are hard at work!
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