Tag Archives: Europe

Appointments, News

A new face in France for composites sales

Global composites manufacturer Exel Composites has appointed Tiphaine Ricoup to the role of area sales manager for French-speaking Europe. As part of Exel’s global sales team, Mrs. Ricoup will work closely with existing customers and extend relations to new business. Exel Composites’ project workflow involves staying close to its customers throughout the R&D process and, with five years of sales experience, Mrs. Ricoup will be a dedicated contact for French speakers in France, Belgium, and Switzerland.

Mrs. Ricoup is a qualified engineer who has worked previously for the French Naval Group, managing target strength projects for the navy. She also designed technical solutions as a bid manager for the Exail Group, using underwater drones to destroy mines. This technical engineering experience will serve her well in her consultant capacity, as she’ll be available to answer customer queries, and will benefit the growing composites market in Western Europe.

“Opening up the potential of composite materials to France, Belgium, and Switzerland is my mission,” said Mrs. Ricoup. “Composites can help with so many issues in Europe, such as building thermal renovation, lightweight transportation components, and refurbishing infrastructure.

“Although the European manufacturing and engineering communities know composite materials and their benefits, I think highlighting the value of continuous manufacturing methods, such as pultrusion and pull-winding, will be an important part of my responsibilities,” continued Mrs. Ricoup. “Exel’s experience in these processes allows it to produce long profiles of uniform quality, with great speed and efficiency. I’m looking forward to returning to an active sales environment and forging relationships with new and existing customers.”

“Exel Composites’ market share in Europe is growing in a way we’re really happy with, so now is a perfect time to add Tiphaine to the team,” explained Roberto Oppio, head of sales for Western Europe at Exel Composites. “The combination of her sales and technical experience makes her a great fit to understand our customers’ needs and form strong relationships to be able to anticipate their requirements.

“Finding composite solutions across different industrial sectors is Exel’s business and Tiphaine strengthens the European team’s ability to find those solutions for customers. As the first point of contact and the face of Exel for French speakers across the region, she will ensure a high level of service and support for our customers.”

To find out how Exel Composites’ expertise in pultrusion and pull-winding could serve your business, contact the company at https://exelcomposites.com/contact-us/

News

Family ethos continues to underpin growth of award-winning independent travel company

An award-winning travel company is targeting significant growth over the next few years – but the family ethos will still underpin everything it does.

Solmar Villa Holidays is looking to increase turnover by 25 per cent next year as it aims to establish itself as the first choice for those looking for villa holidays.

The strategy involves beefing up the senior team, with four new directors already on board and another to come.

Chief executive Julie Blake said: “Our plan is to be that go-to brand, to be a household recognised name so when people think of villa holidays, whether they be in the trade, in the public or press, Solmar is that brand that they think of, and in a positive way.

“We looked at the organisational structure and put the directors in place so we have leadership in each department. Until then, it was just me and I was becoming the bottleneck within the business.

“It has been really exciting to have the directors come in, with the experience they have, and it feels like the pressure is off my shoulders because we have like-minded people in place. Next step is to review the business below that level and put structures in place to make sure the business is future-proofed.”

Julie believes that in-resort reps, personal service and a focus on quality and customer experience help Solmar to stand out from a crowded field, and she intends to continue and develop that ethos.

She said: “We’re making sure we don’t allow quality to drop in pursuit of growth. While we will be getting on for £40 million [turnover] next year, we are still very family-friendly, both as an employer and as a company to speak to, and I think our clients like that. They like the personal touch, and we understand each client and what they are after.

“We are a family-run business, we’re not answering to shareholders, it’s not investment driven – this is about a family wanting to earn a living and be proud of what we do.

“We are pushing forward with what you would call an old-fashioned opinion really, which is looking after the customer.”

Growth plans include moving into long-haul destinations, offering full package holidays including flights, transfers and add-ons, and a 24-hour UK based helpline for customers to supplement the in-resort representative service.

The aim is to increase the number of villas on the books from 1,500 to about 2,500 and to increase staffing both in the UK and in resorts.

Julie said Solmar was also working closely with villa owners to help them maintain and improve their properties, which in turn would improve the holiday experience for customers.

She said: “It’s about trying to help the suppliers improve what they’re doing. Things like hot tubs, EV charging points, solar panels, which we’re doing already. We can part-fund their solar panels on the rooves – they pay, say, €2,000, we pay €2,000, and it means the villa is more sustainable, it means their costs are lower and we have committed to them so they want to continue working with Solmar.

“We are working with suppliers as much as customers to make them see Solmar as a positive company that wants to look after them and their property. What we’re actually doing is making sure that when the clients go there, they have a great time, and aren’t worrying about damaging the environment by putting the air conditioning on.”

Plumbed in water filters so holidaymakers don’t need to buy bottled water and an affordable purchasing scheme so villa owners can buy quality Solmar-branded mattresses to assure visitors of a comfortable sleep are among many innovations and add-ons Julie is keen to introduce to make sure both holidaymakers and suppliers see Solmar as a go-to brand.

She added: “We have to put customer experience and supplier experience to the front, so they have a good experience and want to come back.

“Post-covid, the big difference between what we’re doing and what our competitors seem to be doing, is they all seem to have pulled away from the traditional tour operator business model. Some are no longer doing in-person health and safety checks, they’re not having staff on the ground because it’s expensive.

“That’s all great, and it cuts costs and puts profit on the bottom line, but what’s the experience for the customer, what’s the retention?”

While the cost of living crisis is pushing up costs and squeezing profit margins, Julie is confident that UK holidaymakers will still head abroad in numbers in 2023.

She said: “Market research suggests that while cost of living is an issue, people might change what they do and how they budget, but there’s no way they’re giving up their holidays.

“If we hadn’t had the pandemic I think we would have been a little bit worried about how many people were going to stay in the UK, but UK holidays are so much more expensive than they used to be.

Even when you’re there, you’re not guaranteed the weather and food is much more expensive here as well.

“We’ve been through two recessions in my time here and through both of them Solmar has grown quite substantially. We don’t say “Oh no, there’s a recession, we’d better make redundancies and reduce numbers”. What we do instead is look at the opportunities.

“Holidays are the one thing people will not give up, because they work hard and are very stressed, and the only thing they have to look forward to sometimes is that week or two-week holiday.”

Solmar was created by Julie’s parents John and Maria in the 1980s after they bought their own villa and started to rent it out. The company is based in Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire, and now has 1,500 villas on its books across Europe and the Mediterranean.

With a new logo and rebrand also complete, Julie said the focus was now on investing for growth. A £600,000 bespoke reservation system and website is up and running and staff are in the process of moving to bigger offices which will double the company’s operating space.

AV tech, News

AVer Europe announces strategic partnership with Re Mago

AVer Europe, the award-winning provider of video collaboration and education technology solutions, announces a new strategic partnership with Re Mago. This collaboration will deliver a powerful integrated solution for corporate and higher education users, combining state of the art AI auto framing and auto tracking cameras of AVer with the Valarea platform.

Valarea Room is a unified visual collaboration solution designed to eliminate any blocks to an immersive hybrid meeting or distance learning experience. Features include:

• A one tap start to an instant or scheduled meeting supporting Teams, Zoom, Google and other platforms in the same room.
• The ability to share content easily from any device without installing third-party apps – no dongle needed and network independent.
• The flexibility to present, co-annotate and brainstorm remotely in real time on any type of file.

The solution is designed to be installed on Windows 10 room computers, works with touch and non-touch displays and integrates perfectly with AVer premium quality cameras for a range of different meeting rooms. The AVer VB342PRO is designed for medium sized rooms, the AVer VC520PRO2 for large rooms and the AVer CAM570 for extra-large board rooms where speaker tracking and more than one camera point of view is a must.

Valarea Room is also ideal for training spaces, where the AVer DL30 series and AVer PTC300UV2 series are the perfect plug and play auto-tracking camera solutions to pair with.

The room systems can be easily operated with the Valarea touch controller. Users can start meetings, manage audio and video, screen share and launch apps from the controller. Alternatively, users can build their own touch controllers.

“AVer is delighted to collaborate with Re Mago to provide seamless communication solutions for our customers across Europe. Combining the AVer world-leading AI auto tracking cameras with Valarea Rooms from Re Mago offers our users the best possible environment for immersive and successful hybrid meeting and learning experiences,” says Rene Buhay, SVP of Sales and Marketing, AVer Europe.

“At Valarea, we consistently deliver high-quality video communications solutions for business and education. This collaboration with AVer enables users to combine the best hardware and software to create an enhanced, user friendly and flexible hybrid meeting and learning experience in a range of settings“ says Cristiano Fumagalli, CTO at Re Mago Ltd.

AVer users are able to trial the combined Valarea and AVer solution by registering for a 30-day free trial period at https://valarea.com/get-started.

Acquisitions & Partnerships, News

The Nuvias Group Extends Successful Partnership with Absolute Software Across European Territory

Absolute’s self-healing endpoint and secure access portfolio delivers ‘hybrid work-in-a-box’ for today’s distributed workforces, representing a sizeable growth opportunity for channel partners.

Woking, UK: 20/07/22 – The Nuvias Group, the European high-value distributor, is extending its collaboration with Absolute Software™, a leader in self-healing endpoint and secure access solutions, building on the successful partnership previously announced across the Benelux and DACH region and in the UK through Cloud Distribution, a Nuvias Group Company.

As part of the expansion, the Nuvias Group will access the full Absolute portfolio of solutions, from secure access to secure endpoint, enabling the ongoing shift to ‘work from anywhere’ by extending the trust boundary from the endpoint to the network edge. Channel partners have an opportunity to intercept substantial growth, as Absolute expands from a single to two-tier distribution model, offering the only endpoint security solution factory-installed by every major PC manufacturer and embedded in the firmware of over half a billion devices.

One of Absolute’s unique platform components is its patented Persistence™ technology, which assures an always-on connection to the endpoint and allows for an always-on tunnel or network session. Furthermore, this fuels its Application Persistence™ capabilities, which equip customers to ensure critical applications – such as antivirus, encryption, and VPNs – remain healthy, installed, and working effectively to protect devices and sensitive data.

This represents a significant opportunity for MSPs, especially when considering how the user experience of major communications platforms can be improved. It allows for a ‘hybrid work-in-a-box’ solution to be created that is easily consumable by businesses of all sizes, via a SaaS consumption model.

Absolute, winner of two recent Global InfoSec Awards by Cyber Defense Magazine (CDM), fits perfectly in the Nuvias Frontier programme, boosting channel development for innovative companies and technologies in Europe.

Achi Lewis, Area VP of EMEA at Absolute said: “Our partnership with the Nuvias Group will help boost the expansion of our operations across Europe. We recognise the power of the European channel in reaching our business audience, and we value the Nuvias Group’s technical expertise and local market knowledge to help us deliver customised and integrated solutions to customers.”

“We are excited to extend our cooperation with Absolute in what is a critical high-growth market, help scale and accelerate their channel business and provide our channel partners with a key solution to their cybersecurity stack”, David Harvey, VP, Vendor Alliances at the Nuvias Group, commented.

ECommerce, News

Return of the Highstreet? 40% of ecommerce businesses in Europe plan to open a physical store

  • New research from Tribe Payments shows two in five (40%) ecommerce businesses in Europe plan to open a physical store in the next three years.
  • Around a third of online merchants also expect to launch their own branded store cards, mobile apps and add payment options to better compete.
  • But half of ecommerce brands struggle to compete with large chains that offer an innovative customer experience at the checkout.

London, 19th July 2022 – A new report launched by payments technology provider Tribe Payments today reveals that two in five (40%) ecommerce businesses in Europe plan to open a physical store in the next three years. With governments across the continent backing initiatives to save and promote high streets, a reversal of fortunes for brick-and-mortar stores could be on the cards.

The move to open physical stores is being driven by a number of consumer and payment trends that merchants will need to adapt to in the next five years. The report, which surveyed bot online and multi-channel merchants across Germany, Lithuania, Spain, the Netherlands and the UK found that the majority of merchants believe there is an increased desire from shoppers for a better customer experience (84%), cross-border shopping (81%), to pay using multiple device types (80%) and for greater personalisation (79%).

To meet these demands, merchants recognise they must overcome some challenges. Overall, 50% of merchants say that they struggle to compete with larger chains who offer an innovative customer experience at the checkout. 46% of all merchants say regulatory compliance is a challenge, 46% struggle to navigate consumer trends such as BNPL, multicurrency and contactless. For 27% a challenge lies with reducing fraud, with these issues being more acute for ecommerce merchants.

34% of merchants across Europe plan to overcome these challenges by offering consumers more ways to pay. Surprisingly, physical stores (13%) are leading the charge on payment methods with ecommerce (10%) players playing catch up. Just under a third of merchants expect to launch their own branded store cards, mobile apps and increase range of payment options to better compete. Expanding geographically is another tactic being considered (59%), mostly by British (88%) and Spanish (80%) brands.

“Reports of the high street’s death may be premature… or even just wrong,” said Alex Reddish Managing Director of Tribe Payments. “Merchants are responding to consumer demand and want to deliver a multi-channel, highly personalised shopping experience. This includes launching their own financial offerings via cards and embedded finance options. It’s up to acquirers and infrastructure partners to provide the technology and innovation to enable merchants to compete with their rivals, both online and in-store and keep up with consumer demand.”

Mergers & Acquisitions, News

Infinigate to acquire the Nuvias Group, creating a pan-European Cyber Security powerhouse to generate an anticipated 1.4 billion Euros by 2023

Woking, UK– 5 July 2022 – Infinigate Group, the pan-European value-added distributor (VAD) of Cyber Security solutions today announced the intended acquisition of Nuvias Group’s Cyber Security and Secure Networking business to create a pan-European Cyber Security powerhouse. The merging of the two highly successful businesses establishes Infinigate’s place as a leading VAD focused on Cyber Security in Europe with an anticipated 1.4 billion Euro in revenue. Subject to regulatory approval, closing is expected in the fourth quarter

This acquisition will create a platform of continued above-market growth in EMEA, bolstering Infinigate’s leadership position in Europe across Cyber Security, Secure Networking and Secure Cloud, serving the SMB to Enterprise and Service Provider market segments. Due to increased relevance, larger geographical footprint, and extended vendor portfolio, Infinigate aims to continue to grow annually by more than 20%.

Founded by Rigby Private Equity in 2015, the Nuvias Group has a strong heritage in VAD, having begun its original trading journey 45 years ago. It specialises in Cyber Security and Intelligent Networking with a range of innovative services and solutions designed to secure customer success and accelerate partner and vendor growth.

Infinigate Group has a track record of consistent year-on-year growth since its foundation in 1996 – something it attributes to its distinct customer-centric approach. The union of the two VADs will combine the best of both worlds.

Klaus Schlichtherle, CEO of Infinigate Group said: “Infinigate will become even more relevant and powerful. We will have a stronger geographical footprint, especially in the core markets in Europe – where we will have a strong position in 18 countries. Our complementary vendor portfolios will create a huge opportunity for growth. And bringing together so many skilled people will enable us to create lots of new development opportunities in a fast-growing company. Infinigate will continue to be an exciting place to be for key value add talent and a place to develop competencies, careers and opportunities.”

Simon England, CEO of the Nuvias Group said: “We are excited about joining forces and combining our assets to take the business and teams into the next phase of growth and expansion. Both companies value their people as their most critical asset, and the key to rewarding customer and vendor experiences in specialist distribution.”

Infinigate Group and Nuvias Group both have leading portfolios in Cyber Security for the SMB sector – which will further accelerate growth. Both companies are VADs with excellent services, offering best-in-class-services (training, pre-sales, support, etc.) for customers and vendors. And having both specialised in Cyber Security, Secure Networking and Secure Cloud for decades, their alliance represents an exceptionally high competence and expertise. Combined, they will gain even better customer access and will be able to further strengthen customer relationships.

“After closing the transaction, we aim to continue to grow the joint enterprise by more than 20% annually, and we will continue to address existing as well as new customers in a coordinated fashion. Nuvias and Infinigate have very similar strategies moving forward and will constantly stay focused on this,” explained Schlichtherle.

The acquisition will significantly upgrade the presence of Infinigate Group in UK, France, Benelux and Nordics territory, as well as covering Southern Europe and entering the market in Eastern Europe. Infinigate’s strong base in Germany and Nuvias’ in the UK is an example of the complementary portfolios. And additionally, Nuvias Group brings its enterprise customer segment.

Infinigate Group will serve its extended base of vendors with upgraded relevance, best-in-class execution and an enhanced digital platform for further innovation and growth and improve its performance.

The Unified Communications business of Nuvias Group (Nuvias UC) is not part of the transaction and will be a separate entity under the continued ownership of Rigby Group. Rigby Private Equity will be a shareholder in the Infinigate Group.

Appointments, News

Pimberly accelerates growth plans with board appointment

A leading international retail and e-commerce specialist who has held chief executive roles at Claire’s Accessories and Etam Group has joined the board of technology company Pimberly to help drive its US and European expansion.

Beatrice Lafon, who has vast senior experience with blue-chip companies across Europe and the US, has joined Pimberly as a non-executive director.

Pimberly is also aiming to utilise her expertise to help fuel its growth in the fashion and apparel sector.

During her executive career, Beatrice has held senior roles at Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury’s, River Island, BSkyB, TJ Hughes and B&Q owner Kingfisher, as well as Claire’s Accessories, Dutch fashion group Etam and French omni-channel retailer Pimkie.

Her appointment to Pimberly’s board comes as the Manchester-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) company rolls out ambitious expansion plans following a £6.5m investment boost from existing and new institutional investors and the opening of its first US office in New York.

Martin Balaam, founder and CEO of Pimberly, said: “Beatrice has an enormous amount of retail experience in the UK and the United States and she will be an invaluable asset to the company as we push our expansion in those territories and across the EU.

“Specifically, she brings a wealth of insight into multi-brand, multinational enterprise retailers and brands. She is a welcome addition to our non-executive advisory team as we execute our growth plans and enhance our product offering to the fashion and apparel sector, a key target market for Pimberly.

“She is an inspirational person whose support, strategic advice and knowhow will be of tremendous benefit to the executive team as we pursue our goals.”

Pimberly’s SaaS product information management (PIM) and digital asset management platforms combine with cloud-based technology to help retailers, distributors and manufacturers boost sales by harnessing and enriching increasing volumes of accurate and engaging product data across multiple channels and regions.

Its offering enables clients to forge stronger relationships with their products and create richer shopping experiences for their customers through the use of more relevant data, images, videos and 3D visuals.

Pimberly has seen consistent and rapid development, and its fast-expanding customer base includes high-profile companies such as Ellis Brigham, JD Sports, Monsoon, FGH, Exertis and Card Factory.

So far this year, staff numbers have increased by 40 per cent, from 60 to 84, in line with organic growth, investment in product development and the US office opening.

Martin said: “As online sales increase through marketplaces which open up global trade, the need for complex product data and automation is the primary route to success, and hence the ascendancy of our solutions as necessary e-commerce tech stack platforms.

“We are thrilled to have Beatrice on board as our latest adviser as we take our world-class product to a wider market.”

Beatrice said: “I am delighted at the opportunity to support the international development of Pimberly in the US and across the EU, as well as forging an even stronger presence in retail generally.

“Pimberly offers robust, agile and easy-to-use solutions to enable e-commerce players to develop winning strategies by intelligently managing listings, digital assets and pricing across territories, e-commerce platforms and marketplaces – definitively a must-have tech solution for any ambitious e-commerce business.”

Acquisitions & Partnerships, News

3BL Media Acquires RealWire, Expands ESG News Distribution in UK and Europe

Lincolnshire, England, company is eighth acquisition for 3BL Media

NORTHAMPTON, Mass., April 27th /3BL Media/ — 3BL Media, Inc., the leading environmental, social and governance (ESG) content distribution and analytics platform for purpose-driven companies, announced today the acquisition of RealWire Limited, the online press release distribution service, expanding audience and reach in the United Kingdom and Europe.

The acquisition is the eighth for 3BL Media since 2009. Terms were not disclosed.

“Companies worldwide are committing themselves to ESG performance and transparency, and the combination of RealWire with 3BL Media will provide greater reach to stakeholders including online news outlets, journalists and investors,” said Dave Armon, CEO of 3BL Media, adding that previous UK acquisitions included Ethical Performance and ReportAlert.

Based in Lincoln, in England’s East Midlands region, since launching in 2000, RealWire specialises in increasing the online impact of press releases while cultivating positive relationships with business and trade journalists. RealWire’s editorial and client services team, led by Managing Director Emily Gosling, will enhance 3BL Media’s distribution network by providing concierge service to the growing journalist corps covering climate and sustainability topics.

“Historically, RealWire has been an important B2B communications platform for technology, telecoms and healthcare businesses,” said Gosling. “We have seen ESG rise on our clients’ agenda, so joining 3BL Media will enable us to reach new audiences immediately on a global scale while we apply our unique model for micro-targeting to B2B journalists who opt into our distribution network.”

“Of the more than 8,000 reports and stories on ESG topics that 3BL Media distributed last year, environmental topics generated the most volume and audience interest”, said Armon. “Diversity, equity and inclusion was the top content category in the first quarter of 2022”.

Climate-related disclosure will be mandatory for publicly traded American companies under a proposal announced by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in March. Regulators across the globe are strengthening reporting requirements as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports “it’s now or never” to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees.

News, Security

Westcon-Comstor to add EfficientIP solution to its distribution portfolio in Europe, Africa and Asia-Pacific

Agreement delivers EfficientIP’s DDI and DNS Security solutions to Europe, Africa and APAC channel communit

LONDON, UK – 12th April – Westcon-Comstor, global technology provider and specialist distributor, today announced it has signed a new distribution agreement with EfficientIP. The partnership will bring EfficientIP’s industry-leading DNS, DHCP, and IP address management (DDI) and DNS Security solutions to all European and African markets, as well as Asia-Pacific.

In the last two years we have seen a sharp increase in the remote workforce, prompting an increased demand for greater flexibility in network management and security teams. The race to embrace the cloud, deploy IoT devices, digitally transform business operations and upgrade to new software has also added complexity and reduced visibility across company networks.

This proliferation has not been lost on hackers and as a result, we’re seeing more cyber threats, with DNS servers becoming a prime target for exploitation. In fact, the latest survey conducted by IDC on behalf of EfficientIP revealed that nearly 90% of organisations (87%) experienced DNS attacks, with the average cost of each attack around €780,000 (£694,000). This illustrates the pivotal role DNS plays for network security, both as a threat vector and security objective.

Traditional network security solutions today cannot cover all aspects of the DNS threat landscape, leaving major gaps for hackers to exploit. Without a resilient and all-encompassing security interface in place, companies risk losing access to vital services and assets. EfficientIP’s 360° DNS Security solution fills the gaps left by taking a holistic approach to DNS security. The solution tracks attacker behaviour in real-time and provides immediate alerts to keep mission-critical services protected.

Alongside security threats, there’s also an evident pressure on companies to stay agile and competitive in this new normal. To do so, IT and IP-based devices cannot be overlooked. As companies integrate more IP-based offerings, high quality network infrastructures are of critical importance. EfficientIP’s Network Automation solution increases productivity, improves risk mitigation and facilitates a better time to market, which are all critical to staying dynamic.

The DNS security software market is expected to grow from US$ 1,200.41 million in 2021 to US$ 2,314.56 million by 2028. Westcon-Comstor’s partnership with EfficientIP will strategically expand its portfolio of industry-leading DDI vendors to capitalise on this market growth, while complementing the distributor’s existing network-focused vendors, such as Extreme Networks.

“For network admins, the increase in IoT devices, move to the cloud, and hybrid working all throw up some critical threats and pressure to the network. As the number of connected devices on a business’s enterprise network increases, keeping track of those IP addresses can become an overwhelming task,” said Daniel Hurel, Vice President, Westcon Cyber Security & Next Gen Solutions, EMEA.

“EfficientIP’s DDI service allows network admins to streamline these processes, removing much of the complexity involved in protecting the network. Keeping network administration simple, accessible and operating in real time is vital to successful management, operational efficiency and security. In addition, their 360° DNS Secfurity solution offers a specialised layer of in-depth defense to secure businesses from both external and internal DNS threats. Bringing EfficientIP’s solutions into Westcon-Comstor’s arsenal of cybersecurity gives our partners a valuable tool to curtail the cybersecurity drawbacks of the changing ways of work and make enterprise networks easier to secure.”

“We’re thrilled to be working with Westcon-Comstor to expand our footprint in Europe, Africa and Asia-Pacific. With Westcon-Comstor operating as our primary distributor in those regions, we are bringing DDI and DNS Security to a new network of channel partners and resellers at a faster rate. The company’s specialist capabilities across these territories will play an important role in standardising our sales and marketing activities, ensuring high-quality, cohesive operations while further developing our channel ecosystem,” said Leonard Dahan, VP WW Channels, EfficientIP.

“This is only the start of an exciting partnership. Following this agreement, we also have plans to build on our relationship with additional support from Westcon-Comstor in the Professional and Education Services space.”

News

P&O Ferries sudden sacking of employees and UK employment law

Written by by Kunal Sawhney, CEO, Kalkine

P&O Ferries, one of the leading shipping companies that operate ferries between the UK to Ireland and Continental Europe, in an appalling move on Thursday, fired 800 of its employees without warning. It also announced its intention to replace them with agency workers to reduce costs.

The Labour party is all set to force an emergency vote in parliament to call government actions to prohibit the so-called fire and rehire of staff by P&O Ferries. Trades Union Congress (TUC) is supporting the move and has called on all the MPs to support Labour’s motion.

What does the law say?

Under section 193 of the Trade Union Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992, it is the duty of the employer to notify the Secretary of State of redundancies of 100 or more employees at one establishment within a period of 90 days. Moreover, the rules also state that the employer is required to do so at least 45 days prior to the removals.

Labour though wants actions to be taken against P&O Ferries and suspension of contracts with its owners DP World, but they had also said that reports indicate the government was well aware of the P&O’s sackings of employees before they were announced, as well as the plan to use hire cheap agency employees to replace them.

Government’s stand

Secretary of State, Kwarteng on Friday, a day after P&O Ferries disclosed its decision, wrote a letter outlining the government’s displeasure over the way the company had handled the dismissals. Kwarteng has reportedly highlighted different procedures expected and not followed by the company. P&O ferries have been given time until 5pm on Tuesday 22 March to respond, failing which a formal complaint to the prosecuting authority would be made.

Chancellor of Exchequer Rishi Sunak has criticised the sacking of employees by the ferry company, terming it wrong and awful. He added that the company’s actions were being examined whether they overlooked the regulations while taking the decision.

P&O’s stand

There are reports suggesting that P&O’s decision to make 800 staff redundant as a part of the plan designed to ensure the company remained a major player in the UK shipping market for years to come by way of restructuring. The company in its official statement, has said that sacking of employees was its last resort to remain afloat after considering all other options and posting a loss of £100 million.

The company is expecting disruptions and has already warned customers that its services may not be available for the next few days.

What could happen to P&O Ferries

There is severe pressure on P&O Ferries, with protests spreading to different ports. Trade unions and politicians have come forward in support of sacked employees. Legal angles also don’t seem to be in favour and put the company in a spot of unfair dismissal, with experts saying that P&O Ferries may have broken several laws. The Transport Secretary has called a thorough review of any deal in place with P&O Ferries and its owner. Troubles could increase for P&O ferries as the Rail, Maritime and Transport union has alleged that the agency workers being replaced are paid less than minimum wage.