“Under the pretext of special offers, which usually target best-selling products in terms of value, producers sell directly to hypermarkets at a better price than can be offered by distributors. Retail chains need the lowest prices, which rules out the need for distributors,” Aline Distribution CEO, Cristian Petre, told Business Standard.
In such circumstances, IT distributors will transform into logistics service providers and financers. “Distributors already have the infrastructure, storage space, vehicles, and staff which a vendor does not have, as well as financial resources to support imports and loans for customers,” Petre added.
Another consequence will be a wave of mergers and acquisitions between top players in the field, and a rise in interest of foreign investors for the Romanian market, Petre indicated.
The CEO of another distributor, Scop Computers, Horia Chitu, agrees that some producers work directly with retail chains, but said that most would rather work with distributors.
