Tekserve CEO: No Hard Feelings Toward Apple Amid Store Closure

The CEO of Tekserve, the longtime Apple reseller and technology service provider that will shutter its New York store this month, said that given Apple's ascendancy to become one of the most powerful companies in the world, Apple is "not a bad partner" and isn't to blame for the store closure.

"This is a company that has a global network of premier retail environments and a really, really good e-commerce solution," Tekserve CEO Jerry Gepner told CRN Wednesday. "Have they been channel-friendly? In that context, yes. If they didn't have [retail and e-commerce], and you wanted to rate their channel performance, it would be quite poor. But you have to put it in context."

[Related: Longtime Apple Reseller Tekserve Set To Close Store, Will Continue Offering Professional Services]

Tekserve was founded in 1987, well before Apple products had become a break-out success with consumers and businesses. Now, Apple has six retail stores in Manhattan alone, even as rents have surged in the neighborhood and Apple devices have become less prone to breakdowns -- three key factors cited by Gepner in the store closure when he spoke with CRN.

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The Manhattan store has provided both services for Apple devices as well as retail offerings.

The planned closure "was not a snap decision -- it was not a knee-jerk reaction to something that changed overnight in our world," Gepner said. "When I joined the company in 2014, I joined a conversation that was already ongoing at ownership -- about the declining prospects for retail in general, and specifically in New York, and more specifically doing what we do."

Apple's Premier Partner Program, of which Tekserve is a part, is "really good" and the "people I've dealt with on the channel side [at Apple] are capable, dedicated, helpful people," Gepner told CRN. "I'm not sitting here going, 'God, I'm [angry] at Apple.' That's not the situation. Would I like the landlord to cut our rent in half? That would be a whole lot more helpful than anything Apple could do."

Tekserve as a company will continue to exist, however, to provide Apple sales and services to small and midsize businesses, Gepner said. That part of the business doubled last year and is continuing to grow steadily in 2016, he said.

Tekserve and the affiliated business T2 Computing -- which focuses on providing IT solutions for the media and entertainment sector -- will together continue to employ 75 people, Gepner said, while 70 employees have received layoff notices.

Tekserve has made frequent appearances on CRN'sSolution Provider 500 list and ranked No. 193 on this year's list.