New York — DataVision president Albert Liniado is leaving the Manhattan CE specialty dealer after 25 years to launch a new online wholesale business.
The new operation, Seldat Direct in Dayton, N.J., will provide manufacturers with an e-commerce platform for selling excess inventory in case packs to retail customers and also direct to consumers. Once on the platform, merchants can buy from multiple manufacturers under one checkout, and vendors will get paid in five days, providing improved cash flow, Liniado told TWICE.
The business, which is a new front-end unit of Canada-based Seldat Distribution Services, will target the CE, home goods, apparel and sporting goods industries, and plans to open a new headquarters office in Manhattan.
Liniado co-founded DataVision 25 years ago with CEO Jimmy Garson. The A/V and IT specialty retailer had long held court in a three-level showroom on Fifth Avenue at 39th Street where the weekday crowds and its close proximity to the New York Public Library made it a CE destination for shoppers and a launch pad for vendors like Intel, Samsung and Toshiba, some of which staged performance art and other attractions within its large display windows.
Garson is currently relocating DataVision to a smaller “connected” showroom downtown.
Liniado, who helped develop DataVision’s joint marketing campaigns with vendors, and was recently nominated for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2014 Award, will serve as CEO and co-founder of Seldat Direct.
He will also continue to operate The Stella Liniado Rainbow Foundation, named after his late daughter, which promotes early detection and prevention of leukemia and helps provide family counseling.
