We caught up with Roger Fletcher, Vice President of Sales and Marketing of Diamond Comic Distributors, to ask a few quick questions about the deal to give Diamond and Alliance exclusive distribution rights to WizKids products in the hobby channel (see 'WizKids Goes Exclusive').

 

Will either Diamond or Alliance be making any changes to pricing to retailers on WizKids products?

We do not anticipate in making any changes to pricing.

 

What impact, if any, do you anticipate on the availability of hot products due to this deal?

Having all of the orders go through a single distribution entity should aid in forecasting, and having all of WizKids inventory for the hobby channel under the auspices of Diamond and Alliance will make sure that inventory is in the right place at the right time, so that's one of the benefits of this kind of arrangement.

 

In our interview with WizKids director of marketing Jenny Berg, she said that your companies had expanded staffing to handle the new business.  Can you elaborate? 

On the Alliance side, we've beefed up our sales rep ranks, and we've also allocated significant chunks of management time from both companies for the transition and going forward.

 

How will Diamond and Alliance handle sales of WizKids products to Internet retailers?

The policies of the two companies will be the same as they were in the past.  Alliance's terms of sale require a brick and mortar storefront to become a customer.  Diamond's do not specifically prohibit Internet-only retailers, but we're taking steps to implement changes for WizKids products.  In the case of specific Internet companies, if WizKids brings specific businesses to our attention, our systems have the ability to prevent them from buying WizKids products.