WhatTheyThink has learned that Tekgraf, a master distributor for products from Epson, HP, Canon and others and serving a base of some 150 resellers, very suddenly closed its doors on December 16th. Apparently there was no advance warning to employees or partners. WhatTheyThink has been attempting to contact TekGraf principals and partners, but it has been difficult due to the holidays. We did speak with Rich Reamer, Director of Product Marketing for the Large Format Printer Division of Canon, who confirmed that the company had closed its doors. “Tekgraf was one of our more valued distributors and a great partner to us and others in the industry,” he said, “and they will be missed. However, the impact on Canon is negligible. Resellers who worked with Tekgraf can still sell the imagePROGRAF line working with Tekgraf competitors such as Ingram Micro, Tech Data, Paradigm Imaging Group and Wynit, so there are lots of options. As soon as other distributors got a sense of what was going on, they upped their inventory levels so they were prepared pretty quickly.” Pitman’s Larry Damico echoed those sentiments, indicating Tekgraf’s closure was not incredibly disruptive, and Pitman was able to quickly shift where products were purchased.
The company’s web site is still live, and its automated telephone system is operational, although all choices lead to various voice mail boxes with no indication that the company is not operating.
WhatTheyThink will continue to follow up on this story and will provide more information as it becomes available.
Discussion
By Cary Sherburne on Jan 05, 2010
No response from Tekgraf principals despite repeated attempts, but a source has informed WhatTheyThink that the issues were likely financial (no big surprise). Apparently, Tekgraf had made a rather substantial move to a new facility in South Carolina and made a number of other investments. Our source said, "They may not have gotten to the revenue like as quickly as they needed to in order to support the cost infrastructure."
Meanwhile, I have heard from some folks who were looking for a new source for certain 3M and ElevenTen products previously provided by Tekgraf, including 3M vinyls and laminates for
wide-format inkjets and the Luminosity line of wide-format media, ink and laminates from ElevenTen Color (a division of Tekgraf, acquired in Spring 2008). We attempted contacts with 3M's media relations department, but have had no response, but a conversation with Pitman executives reflects that 3M has made arrangements for alternate sources of these 3M materials including Pitman, and that Pitman is also carrying the ElevenTen line.
At this point, it is not likely we we have further news on this subject, although we welcome comments from Tekgraf ...