North American IT and CE distributor D&H Distributing has doubled down on its home entertainment business with two new hires and a new customer-facing post.
Joining the team are Trevor May as executive director, vendor management, and André Lalande, named senior sales director of home entertainment.
May, a 20-plus-year industry veteran, comes to D&H by way of hhgregg, where he established the computer products department and honchoed the sales and merchandising of laptops, desktops, tablets, iPads, cameras, gaming gear and headphones. Besides experience, he brings ongoing relationships with such D&H vendor partners as HP, Toshiba, Dell, Lenovo and Samsung.
Lalande, who also has over 20 years’ experience under his belt, joins D&H from URC (Universal Remote Control), where he served as corporate alliances director. Before that he held high-level sales, management and marketing posts with Lutron, Philips and Nortel, among other vendors.
Lalande succeeds John Alifano, formerly home entertainment sales director, who has been appointed to the newly created position of senior director of customer acquisitions and special projects, managing “all aspects of new customer onboarding,” D&H said.
The fourth member of the home entertainment team, Bob Careless, will continue to manage D&H’s housewares business, which includes the distributor’s growing small-appliance assortment.
The company said the changes were designed “to strengthen D&H’s internal focus on the consumer/retail side, meeting the expanding needs of this customer base.” Added Jeff Davis, senior sales VP: “D&H is proud of the profitability that its home entertainment and consumer categories have generated for dealers and retailers in recent years, despite the challenges in the general retail marketplace. We’re thrilled to add new resources to this side of our business, by way of outstanding personnel with unique perspectives and decades of savvy business acumen.”
