Australian distributor WhiteGold Solutions has ramped up its Kiwi efforts, opening its first New Zealand office to service both this country and the Pacific Islands.

Richard Crabb has been appointed country manager for New Zealand and Pacific Islands to head the local charge.

Crabb has previously held positions as Brightstar ICT and unified comms manager and New Zealand country manager for Distribution Central.

Dominic Whitehand, WhiteGold managing director, says the company has sold into New Zealand and the Pacific Islands for ‘some time’, albeit with a limited number of vendors.

“Now, we have access to distribution for a larger number of our vendors whom we represent in Australia – and we will have a physical presence with resources on the ground and stock holding, based in Auckland.

“This is a significant growth accelerator for WhiteGold and we are taking the move seriously – investing in premises, people and systems to provide a customer experience consistent with our Australian operation.”

The company bills itself as a unified value distributor – a hybrid model between broad-based and niche distribution, providing a wider set of technologies through one distribution vehicle while also providing value-add through pre- and post-sales and technical support, training and professional services. The company claims the model gives resellers better margins, services and support.

WhiteGold’s portfolio covers security, networking, storage and VoIP offerings with key vendors including Aastra Telecom, Allied Telesis, Arbor Networks, Barracuda Networks, D-Link, Exinda, FireEye, Fortinet, Kaspersky Lab, Meraki Networks, nCircle, Solera Networks, Vasco and WatchGuard – ‘with many of these now represented in New Zealand also’.

Whitehand says he sees ‘tremendous opportunity’ in building a solid local operation in the region to add to the overall growth and success of WhiteGold as ANZ’s pioneer in unified value distribution.”

WhiteGold grew its business 38% year-on-year as at 30 June, and Leigh Howard, WhiteGold strategic advisor, says the Kiwi move will be a cornerstone in the company achieving a target of more than double that growth over this financial year.

Crabb says the local operations have already sourced an inside sales/admin resource to join him in their Mairangi Bay premises, and he is currently interview sales engineers.

“We are open for business and we fully intend to quickly substantiate WhiteGold’s award-winning service and capabilities in New Zealand and the Pacific Islands by utilising the same methodologies as the parent operation in Australia.”