LG Europe has been given a pile of money by its Korean parent and told to build a business channel, which it has started in the UK and Germany this week. Bringing in Barrie Guy, formerly with Sony and NEC, it wants to engage with a few thousand partners in each country to help sell more of its business displays and other products.

The first target markets are likely to be education and hotels where it is already working, but Barrie Guy promises that LG's new Business solutions division will be 100% channel. In the UK, it is already selling though distribution, using Northamber, Midwich and Tech Data/C2000, although it is interesting to note that it is C2000's normal IT division, not the A/V specialist Maverick.

It seems to be very early days; a new portal will be available soon for partners to sign up on, and Barrie Guy told IT Europa that they had had a few hundred requests for information so far. He expects to have 500-600 partners on his books by next March, but it is clear that the new division has some work to do. For example, it is run separately from the LG consumer division, which has its own logo and slogan - "Life's Good", but which the business division wants no part of.

A multi-screen thin client solution is one of the division's first products, but mostly it is the large hotel displays and electronic billboard advertising market that are in his sights. And while he promises to have all sorts of benefits, deal registration and material available to support partners, too many may be concerned at the high level of competition that LG has on the consumer side, and the relatively low margins that seem to mean this is one for large integrators and specialist resellers who can add some value.