PC giant Lenovo has revealed that it plans to go head to head with HP after announcing a distribution agreement with Westcoast that it hopes will enable it to win market share from its rival.

The deal means that Westcoast will now sell both vendors’ full portfolios and makes it Lenovo’s fourth distributor alongside Interface Solutions, Ingram Micro and Northamber.

Tim Wilkinson, UK transaction business unit director at Lenovo, said: “This move is going to take us head to head with HP. If we can leverage some of our products into its customer base, that would be great.

“Westcoast has a broad customer range and we are expecting it to satisfy demand for our products, but we are not anticipating swap selling.”

Westcoast denied that its HP and Lenovo business would conflict.

Sam Wilson, marketing manager at Westcoast, said: “There are different departments working on each account so the possibility of cannibalising our customers is minimal.”

However, Lenovo’s resellers have expressed concerns the deal could add to problems that the vendor has experienced with its supply chain.

Barry Dodhia, marketing manager at Lenovo reseller Hemini, said: “Lenovo simply has too many partners and cannot meet the demand. Taking on another distributor is just one more problem in a never-ending situation.

“It should be looking to fix its existing problems before looking to grow.”

Meanwhile, Westcoast moved to downplay suggestions the deal with Lenovo had jeopardised its relationship with Acer.

“It’s business as usual with Acer,” added Wilson.