Sahara Computers to distribute Toshiba

This collaboration reinforces the company's commitment to make its range of consumer technology more readily available to South Africa's rising middle class. Sahara's expertise and success in furniture retail, as well as its national reach to independent retailers, will make the company's products and services more widely available to end-users, where there has been a growing demand for the brand.

Jan Minnie, retail business manager for Toshiba Africa, says that one of Sahara's key differentiators is its distributorship agreements with furniture retailers, who offer a wide range of finance options for their customers along with a wide range of sought-after home-related products and services.

"In an environment where credit is difficult to come by, many of the furniture retailers have already approved credit agreements with their customers, who can then leverage these agreements to expand their purchasing power.

As South Africans become more and more technology savvy, the company is seeing a surge in demand for robust notebooks that are supported by excellent service and comprehensive guarantees. The brand is now able to service this demand through the furniture retailers, who now offer their customers a comprehensive home technology solution as well.

"As part of our channel strategy to make sure our range of notebooks and supporting peripherals reach the people who are calling out for their functionality, our aim is to appoint the best partners in their respective fields to ensure that this demand is fed. Sahara meets all these criteria, as it shares many of our values: leading innovation, quality and excellence," says Minnie.

"We are thrilled to be collaborating with the company, because it is one of the most respected technology hardware brands in the world," says Sahara's executive director, Stephan Nel. "The network of retailers that the brand will be able to reach through this distributorship agreement will see its reach expand significantly, as the outlets we service are found across the country, from metropolitan and urban areas to smaller towns and villages.

"We are confident that the excellent after-sales support will be a further differentiator as together, we take the brand's technology to South Africa's people, wherever they are."