Ottawa’s Corel Corp. (TSX: CRE) hopes a new North American distribution agreement signed with specialty distributor WYNIT Inc. will open up new markets for its video and photo editing software in the photography and wide-format printing channels.
Corel is already working with broadline distributors Ingram Micro, Synnex and Tech Data according to Kevin Thornton, senior vice-president, sales and marketing, Americas for Corel. On the specialty distribution side, he said they’re also targeting the VAR network with D&H, academic resellers with Douglas Stewart Co., and retail with Navarre.
Based in Nort Syracuse, NY, WYNIT Inc. is specialty distributor focused on the consumer electronics, digital photography, print and presentation, video editing, outdoor, security and photo ID market categories in the U.S. and Canada. With WYNIT, Thornton said Corel hopes to reach resellers for large-format printing and specialty photo shops such as Black’s.
“With Corel’s focus on our graphics products and our digital media products, we saw a real opportunity to partner with WYNIT to expand our distribution reach and make our products more widely available to some of these VARs and specialty resellers that don’t have relationships with the broadline distributors,” said Thornton.
With WYNIT, Thornton said Corel will be able to tap a market with a great deal of potential that neither Corel or its competitors have successfully tapped fully as of yet. While bring in large retailers such as Future Shop does get Corel onto a lot of shelves, he said many customers that are looking for specialty photo and video editing software are still going to specialty retailers such as Black’s, seeking more focused support.”
We think there’s a real synergy having our software available to these customers,” said Thornton. “It allows us to expand our reach and make products available where customers are shopping already.”
In addition, said Thornon, WYNIT has a relationship with tablet PC manufacturer Wacom, and is the exclusive distributor if the Wacom Cintiq 21UX, which it offers bundled with Corel Painter X. It’s through bundling opportunities such as this, said Thornton, that resellers in this new channel can fully leverage the new relationship and Corel’s software.
“By having our products available through WYNIT or other distributors, resellers have the opportunity to bundle software with hardware to create real value-added solutions for their customers,” said Thornton. “Given our recent acquisitions such as InterVideo, Ulead and Jasc Software, we’ve been able to integrate that technology and launch upgrades for all our key products.
He adds that the digital imaging and editing space is becoming even larger with digital cameras and video becoming even more prevalent. YouTube is increasingly popular, and with the proliferation of camera phones, more and more people are creating video and looking for ways to work with it.
“Speaking with our reseller and channel partners, they’re looking for value-adds. They want great software they can use as a value-add or an upsell when selling digital cameras or printers,” said Thornton. “We’re confident we’ve got software that’s easy to use and is priced right for different customers, based on their needs.”
