A string of losses and a roll-call of unhappy creditors have forced P&I Data Services to pull out of the low-margin PC hardware market. The Hampshire-based reseller has appointed accountancy firm Baker Tilly to help it put together a plan to keep creditors at bay and the wolf from the door as it goes through a major restructuring exercise. According to this week’s PC Dealer, the weekly channel newspaper, P&I has laid off 45 staff and is severing ties with Compaq, Toshiba and Siemens Nixdorf – although it will continue to sell Compaq servers. Ian Summerfield, P&I managing director, told PC Dealer: “We have refocused on value-add areas and have effectively moved out of the hardware business.” Exactly how P&I will turn things round is unclear. According to the PC Dealer report, Baker Tilly has not yet formulated a recovery plan. Any such plan would have to get the backing of P&I’s creditors to avoid further problems. P&I has been languishing in the red for the last 18 months and for the year ending September 1997, made a £150,000 loss on turnover of £12.6 million. The company was named Reseller of the Year two years running at the PC Dealer Channel Awards ®