Saratoga and Innovision partner up

Adelaide-based Saratoga Distribution and Melbourne's Audion Innovision have joined forces in a bid to broaden their national reach.

Saratoga managing director, Ivar Stanelis, said it had been looking for a way to diversify from its core software distribution business. It was approached by Audion Innovision to take on a sub-distribution role and will now have access to its full vendor portfolio including Altec-Lansing, AVLabs, Lorex security surveillance products and Xitel. Audion also recently picked up distribution rights to Pinnacle's TV tuner hardware for Macs from Lako Pacific.

"We were looking for a way of gaining incremental income. There are a lot of resellers who order once a month. By getting in some new product lines, we should see more volumes coming through," Stanelis said.

"Just having software won't cut it in the future, as the margins are getting squeezed all the time. So we're slowly getting more diverse."

Audion Innovision managing director, Boyd Dainton, said it had been looking for a way to boost sales in the independent reseller market. The company primarily deals with mass merchants including Harvey Norman, Myer, OfficeWorks and Dick Smith.

"Saratoga's ability to get to the smaller regional distributors, particularly in SA and WA, is a big asset, and our product mix fits well with what they are doing," he said.

In other news, Audion Innovision has been acquired by Singapore-based public company, Ban Leong. Dainton said the acquisition would give it greater regional presence across Asia as well as more financial backing to fund its growth strategy.

"We have typically been limited to 3-4 vendors but with the acquisition we can expand this to 8-12 vendors in the next 12 months," Dainton said.

Audion Innovision also sub-distributes products through Ingram Micro and Multimedia Technology.