Samsung Ends Relationship With GVI As Master Distributor
Samsung Techwin America announced today a realignment of its reseller strategies aimed at becoming a “significant contributing partner” to the distributor and systems integrator marketplace.
“We want to be an integral part of our channel partners’ business strategy”, said Frank De Fina, Samsung’s senior vice president of sales and marketing, “We want to earn the business by investing resources at the channel level to drive sales to distributors and systems integrators.”
In a move largely anticipated by the security industry, Samsung Techwin America will be dissolving its relationship with GVI Security Inc. headquartered in Carrollton, Texas effective January 1, 2011.
“We greatly appreciate GVI’s contribution to Samsung’s business over the years, and wish them continued success in their future business endeavors,” DeFina said.
Samsung’s loyal distributor and Integrator base will now be served directly through the company’s North American operations headquartered in Ridgefield Park, NJ.
“We will continue to capitalize on the global resources and brand recognition behind the Samsung name to further enhance our leadership role in the video surveillance market,” DeFina said. “And we will continue to expand our product offering to provide our customers with the best performance and value proposition.”
In October of 2009, Samsung Electronics announced the sale of their CCTV business to Samsung Techwin or STA, a sister subsidiary in the Samsung group of companies.
According to Steve Walin, CEO of GVI Security, “When Samsung merged their two security divisions effective Jan 1, 2010, we structured an agreement with STA whereby we could mutually serve the Americas. Unfortunately, we have found that, despite our best efforts and intentions, the approach introduced too much conflict and did not work effectively for our customers and our companies. Therefore a mutual decision was made to terminate our agreement. Effective January 1, 2011, GVI Security will no longer be selling and supporting Samsung products.”
In addition to all Sales activities, Samsung will be handling all warranty returns or product support issues directly. Their customers are being advised to call Samsung directly for more details.
“It has been a pleasure working together with Samsung Electronics to grow their product line and market presence throughout the Americas. Moving forward, the GVI team will continue to bring leading security product solutions to the market in addition to providing excellent support to our customers. We will have several announcements in January regarding significant new products we are adding to our line,” said Joe Restivo, COO and CFO of GVI Security.
For now, GVI Security will focus on its own product line, including the Auto IP camera and razberi products. However, company officials are preparing to make a key announcement in January about additional products.
“We’re very bullish about business in 2011,” Whalin said during a phone interview Dec. 17. “We expect great things to come. November was an excellent month and so far, December is better than expected, without much of a seasonal impact.”