Mark Ellis, HPs UK large-format printers category manager, said the company was expanding its wholesale channel to meet the demand from graphics resellers.

Westcoast and Datec 2000 will handle distribution of the DesignJet range, which encompasses both the CAD and reprographics markets.

Art Systems in Beeston is the other UK distributor of the DesignJet range.

Datec 2000 is part of Computer 2000, the Basingstoke-based trade-only distributor of computer hardware, software and services. Computer 2000 is already a distributor of other HP products.

Westcoast stepped into the distribution vacuum left by the administrative receiverships of RES Holdings, RES Distribution and Calcomp European Supplies (PrintWeek, 26 April).

The RES companies administrative receivers, Eddie Blackwell and Martha Thompson of BDO Stoy Hayward Business Recovery Services, have said that the companies were hit by financial difficulties as a result of "challenging market conditions". Their priority was to ensure that all of the companies assets are realised, including freehold premises in Wokingham, they added.

Most of the 28 staff employed across the three companies had been made redundant prior to their appointment.

Blackwell said he was doing all he could to "clear up any confusion and clarify the situation for employees and creditors quickly and efficiently".

Story by Gordon Carson