Ingram Micro A/NZ sends jobs offshore

Buys BrightPoint.

Ingram Micro has revealed plans to move 100 local administration jobs offshore to the Philippines capital of Manila as it looks to cut costs from its local operations.

The distributor confirmed 60 local staff would be made redundant with a further 40 redundancies expected to occur between September and March next year, as first reported by ARN.

Ingram Micro Australia director of sales operations, Liz Wolahan, told CRN none of the redundancies would affect customer-facing roles within the company and said the distributor’s partners would likely not experience any changes to service levels.

“The goal is that local partners won’t experience any diminishment of [customer] experience at all,” she said.

Administrative positions in the distributor's Kuala Lumpur operation have also recently been moved to Manila.

Bouncing back?

Wolahan said Ingram had grown stronger following last year’s travails which included disappointing financial results compounded by complications rolling out a global ERP system from SAP.

In March this year the company’s high-profile Australian marketing boss Grant Cleary was made redundant.

“We have moved through those difficulties,” Wolahan said.

The company recognised the need to further streamline its operations and continue to cut costs. Wolahan declined to comment on whether further local redundancies were likely, nor how much money Ingram expected to save by moving the 100 jobs to Manila.

Sets sights on mobility

Ingram Micro has flagged a major play for the mobile devices market announcing today it would buy wireless sector distribution specialist BrightPoint for around US$840 million.

Ingram said in a statement the acquisition would allow it to become "a leading global provider of device lifecycle services and solutions for the mobile industry”.