D&H Distributing is expanding its young and growing components division by giving system integrators, SMB VARs, and retailers/etailers the ability to buy AMD processors, graphics products, and computing solutions. D&H has had a long-standing relationship with AMD in selling its components within branded devices from HP, Lenovo, and others, but with this more expansive agreement, the distributor now provides a full complement of best-in-class and high-performance components across most every industry-leading manufacturer.
Chris Geiser (pictured), senior director of components and systems at D&H Distributing, acknowledges AMD was the missing link in its components linecard, adding that talks to add the CPU products were underway before long-time channel executive Marty Bauerlein left AMD to join D&H in April, taking on the newly established position of chief commercial officer.
The expanded relationship is “a sign that AMD sees the commitment that we’ve made in the component space, the investments that we’ve made, the growth that we’re seeing in the space, and the support that they need [for] their growth plans,” says Geiser, who before joining D&H in 2021 was the director of SSD sales for Samsung’s business division.
At the same time, Geiser says Bauerlein’s presence has already made an impact by “bringing his expertise and bringing his energy and bringing his knowledge of the market. It’s allowed us to really see a broader vision about how we might approach the market. It’s changed our thinking about where we should invest.”
In addition to launching the components division two years ago, D&H is boosting its emphasis on processor-heavy application areas such as esports, gaming, and large-scale ProAV or server deployments. “So we’ve essentially moved farther into the supply chain and work more closely with our system builder partners to be able to support their needs—all of those system builders that are building solutions, building PCs, building gaming systems, building white box servers within the U.S. market, and that’s a massive market.”
Geiser says the division “grew astronomically” its first two years, but like the rest of market has hit a slowdown, partly due to demand slowing post-pandemic and partly due to turbulence in the Bitcoin market impacting demand for GPUs. Still, Geiser says D&H is ahead of revenue trends. “If you look at the overall market, I’d say it’s probably down 10 to 15%. If you look at our sales, we’re actually up probably 10 to 15%.”
He attributes that growth to “our focus on components, our investment, and the vendors investing to support our growth,” while noting that D&H has benefited from industry consolidation as well. In addition, Geiser says D&H has been expanding the components team, including dedicated salespeople. “Previously, I would say we were more of a generalist, broadline distributor that supported every product. We obviously still do that, but it’s really targeting [and] segmenting our customer base, really focusing on the specific applications we know are going to drive that next generation of growth.”
That has been manifesting in attendees to D&H’s THREAD conferences, one of which is coming up on June 14. “The type of customer that comes to THREAD now is definitely changing and we’re definitely seeing a lot more system integrator partners, system builder partners. … [They] want to come in because they’re getting that information directly from the manufacturer, directly from the vendor, where we’re facilitating that through our investments in the components space. That is an area that I think is going to be emerging as we see our THREAD events evolve and we add additional education tracks to that and additional sponsorship from our components vendors.”
Overall, he concludes, “I think we’ve got a pretty compelling case right now” in the components area. “I don’t think that we’re missing anything in terms of our roadmap.”
