Printing vendor, Brother, has added Synnex to a long list of regional distributors to focus on its consumables.

Brother national sales manager, Kim Ward, said the vendor had been reviewing its channel strategy over the past year.

"As a result of that review we've brought Synnex on-board. We wanted to appoint a distributor with a good national presence and market share," he said.

Initially, Synnex will only have access to Brother's consumables line. Ward said consumables distribution had held some difficulties for the vendor previously.

"There are some non-authorised distributors out there and consumers are getting inferior quality products as a result. The main drive behind appointing Synnex is that we want resellers to know they are getting genuine products and the right consumables are available to customers," he said.

Synnex product manager, Jay Ko, said the distributor needed to bring more consumable vendors into the mix due to customer demand.

"Our print vendor partners, HP, Epson, Fuji Xerox and Canon, have been encouraging us to add more consumables to our range and our customers want to use us as a one-stop shop for printing," Ko said. "We'll be looking to bring on other vendors in the future as well."

Ko said Synnex will hold a launch promotion with reseller prizes to make customers aware of its availability. Brother consumables will be available from next week.

Brother's existing distributors are XiT, Cellnet, Integrex, Pheonix Toner, Image Design Technology, Printcom, Leader Computers and Tonex.

Ward said there were no immediate plans to add or remove anyone from the list.

"The strategy we are looking for is to have a strong national and a few strong state-based distributors," he said.