New Regional President Heightens Focus on Long-Term Growth Through Optimization, Innovation and Focus on Key Growth Areas
SANTA ANA, Calif., Feb 02, 2005 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ -- In preparation for the company's annual North America Regional Kick Off event Feb. 7 - 9, Ingram Micro Inc.'s (NYSE: IM) newly appointed North American President Keith Bradley today provided a first look at the business-building strategies and growth initiatives that will define the region in 2005 and beyond. Bradley outlined three key pillars to support the company's long-term growth strategy: enhance the base business, identify and grow adjacent business areas, and develop services.
"Our strategy is simple: to innovate, optimize and grow," said Bradley, who was named Ingram Micro's North American president on Dec. 23, 2004. "We have outlined a strong plan to execute that strategy. Over the past two years, we've maintained a bulls-eye focus on growing our business and creating a lower cost infrastructure that continues to strengthen our balance sheet, boost productivity and increase gross margins. Simultaneously, we've continued to lead the industry in developing innovative resources and solutions that clearly differentiate our company, increase our value and expand business opportunities for our customers and partners. My job is to ensure my team builds on these successes."
Focused on delivering advantage and leveraging the company's worldwide footprint, Bradley points to several areas that will better position the North American region against competitors and deliver stronger service offerings for customers and manufacturers:
Enhance the Base Business
-- Strengthen North America's Marketing and Vendor Management
organizations -- align business resources to better service and
support customers and manufacturers and become a more strategic
marketing organization.
* Under the leadership of Brian Wiser, Ingram Micro will continue
to focus on five key marketing areas:
* Customer Solutions Marketing
* Channel Development
* Creative Services
* Marketing and Pricing Operations
* Market Development
* In addition, a new Product Marketing team -- which resides
within Customer Solutions Marketing -- has been created to focus
on the key services, technology and resources that customers and
manufacturers demand most.
-- Improve overall customer and manufacturer partner engagements within
all levels of the company -- building high-impact go-to-market
strategies and tactics that drive results and simplify business
practices.
* Under the continued leadership of Paul Bay, who was recently
promoted to senior vice president, Ingram Micro will segment its
new Vendor Management organization, previously called Product
Management, and take a more holistic, technology driven approach
to manufacturer engagement.
* The new structure will help Ingram Micro's Vendor Management
team quickly identify trends and challenges facing these
technology segments -- ultimately delivering more meaningful
results for business partners and customers. The six focus
areas include:
* Software, Security and Mobility
* Networking
* Components, Consumer Electronics, and Peripherals
* Systems and High-End Storage
* Category Management
* Purchasing
-- Expand offerings within the Healthcare and Finance verticals and
introduce new vertical business solutions and resources for the
emerging Manufacturing and Retail markets.
Identify and Grow Adjacent Businesses
-- Optimize infrastructure and continue to refine business practices to
free up capital for investments in adjacent and emerging growth
markets such as:
* Consumer Electronics (CE)
* Automatic Identification and Data Capture (AIDC), Point of Sale
(POS) and, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)
* Components
* Retail and Online
Develop and Expand Services Offerings
-- Offer more professional services -- including SKUd services and
extended warranty attach rates.
-- Invest in field resources, cross-trained technical support offerings
and facilities -- bringing more value to the customer and helping
them identify incremental business opportunities and technical
solutions.
-- Expand focus on customer communities, training, education and
business resources -- emphasizing the importance of specialization,
partnership and support.
"Our targeted approach to capturing sales and business opportunities in high-potential markets, such as CE, AIDC/POS and components, will continue to pay off for us in North America," says Bradley. "Diversifying our business model, building our service offerings and strengthening our core will remain critical to our success in 2005 and beyond. Combined with our ongoing global business improvement efforts, we expect to grow our existing North America business, capture new business and in some cases recapture profitable business that we may have lost to competitors."
About Ingram Micro Inc.
As a vital link in the technology value chain, Ingram Micro creates sales and profitability opportunities for vendors and resellers through unique marketing programs, outsourced logistics services, technical support, financial services, and product aggregation and distribution. The company serves 100 countries and is the only global IT distributor with operations in Asia. Visit www.ingrammicro.com.
Cautionary Statement for the Purpose of the Safe Harbor Provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995
The matters in this press release that are forward-looking statements, including but not limited to statements about future revenues, sales levels, operating income, margins, integration costs, cost synergies, operating efficiencies, profitability, market share and rates of return, are based on current management expectations that involve certain risks which, if realized, in whole or in part, could cause such expectations to fail to be achieved and have a material adverse effect on Ingram Micro's business, financial condition and results of operations, including, without limitation: (1) intense competition, regionally and internationally, including competition from alternative business models, such as manufacturer-to-end-user selling, which may lead to reduced prices, lower sales or reduced sales growth, lower gross margins, extended payment terms with customers, increased capital investment and interest costs, bad debt risks and product supply shortages; (2) termination of a supply or services agreement with a major supplier or customer or a significant change in supplier terms or conditions of sale; (3) failure of information processing or data security systems could result in significant disruption of business and/or additional costs to Ingram Micro; (4) worsening economic conditions globally or in particular geographic regions, such as the Asia-Pacific region (particularly in purchases of technology products) and failure to adjust costs in a timely fashion in response to a sudden decrease in demand; (5) losses resulting from significant credit exposure to reseller customers and negative trends in their businesses; (6) delays or failure to achieve the benefits of process or organizational changes we may implement in the business; (7) disruptions in business operations due to reorganization activities and/or increased or unanticipated costs related to such changes, as well as compliance with regulatory requirements such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002; (8) rapid product improvement and technological change and resulting obsolescence risks; (9) possible disruption in commercial activities caused by terrorist activity or armed conflict, including changes in logistics and security arrangements as a result thereof, and reduced customer demand; (10) dependence on key individuals and inability to retain personnel; (11) reductions in credit ratings and/or unavailability of adequate capital; (12) interest rate and foreign currency fluctuations; (13) adverse impact of governmental controls and actions or political or economic instability which could adversely affect foreign operations; (14) failure to attract new sources of business from expansion of products or services or entry into new markets; (15) inability to manage future adverse industry trends; (16) difficulties and risks associated with integrating operations and personnel in acquisitions and, in particular, our acquisition of Tech Pacific; (17) unanticipated costs or liabilities and failure to retain key personnel in connection with our acquisition of Tech Pacific or other acquisitions; (18) future periodic assessments required by current or new accounting standards, which may result in additional charges; and (19) dependence on independent shipping companies.
Ingram Micro has instituted in the past and continues to institute changes to its strategies, operations and processes to address these risk factors and to mitigate their impact on Ingram Micro's results of operations and financial condition. However, no assurances can be given that Ingram Micro will be successful in these efforts. For a further discussion of significant factors to consider in connection with forward-looking statements concerning Ingram Micro, reference is made to Exhibit 99.01 of Ingram Micro's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended January 3, 2004; other risks or uncertainties may be detailed from time to time in Ingram Micro's future SEC filings. Ingram Micro disclaims any duty to update any forward-looking statements.
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SOURCE Ingram Micro Inc.
media, Marie Meoli, marie.meoli@ingrammicro.com, or Lisa Zwick, lisa.zwick@ingrammicro.com, +1-714-382-2190, or investor information, Ria Marie Carlson, +1-714-382-4400, ria.carlson@ingrammicro.com, all of Ingram Micro Inc.
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