The parent company of Apple distributor CED, Triumph Industries, has taken over the operations of Auckland University-based Campus Computers on a five-year lease.
Peter Arnott, financial director of Triumph, says the deal can't be described as an acquisition. "We're taking over the lease, putting some stock in there and hiring some of the people that were there," he says.
Arnott is not planning substantial changes to the services or product range offered by the outlet, which specialises in servicing the academic staff and students of Auckland University and the technical institutes.
"It's a multi-vendor business — Origo, Toshiba, Microsoft, Rennaissance and Hewlett-Packard and Apple — so we're basically representing all the vendors. We'd be operating those brands out of there and treating it as a separate retail business.
"It consolidates our position and is a strategic move. We'd hate to have somebody else running it."
The university will absorb some staff and Triumph is interviewing others to continue in the outlet.
Phil Benville, registrar of IT systems at the university, says the university wants to focus on its core functions. "The purchasing of PC equipment for university use will now be done by a group that I'm establishing in my area," Benville says. "Campus Computers originally came from that and grew into retailing and now we're splitting the two off."