Acer drives strong retail activity

Acer, the international computer brand, has streamlined its operations, increasing the company`s sales channels. In Europe, this process has increased Acer`s market penetration and improved financial results at the expense of other leading brands.

Acer has had the highest year-on-year growth of 25.6% and 34.8% out of the top five vendors for total PCs and notebooks, respectively, in Western Europe. In particular, Acer fared remarkably well in Italy as the only brand that grew within the top five vendors, for total PCs, with a growth of 25.9%, and ranked number one. Acer also retained the top position for notebooks in Italy for 27 consecutive quarters since 1996, occupying 36.7% of the market share and growth of 18.6%.

In October 2002, David Drummond joined Acer Africa as managing director to drive sales, strategy and integration forward in SA. Drummond heads up sub-equatorial Africa and the additional territories of the Anglo Afro countries in East and West Africa plus the Indian Ocean Islands.

High on his priority list is increasing Acer`s footprint in SA. The first step in attaining this objective is the move back into the retail market and appointing Incredible Connection as Acer`s retailer of choice.

"Acer is the best kept secret of the IT world and this is about to change," says Drummond. "The partnership between Incredible Connection and Acer will give customers the opportunity to purchase state-of-the-art Acer technology.

"Commitment to R&D with regard to financial and intellectual capital has had positive results on the Acer brand," states Drummond. "Acer is continuously developing products that satisfy customer requirements and are easy to use.

"Furthermore, Acer`s unique business model ensures customers can obtain the right product for home or business use."

One of the business products, available at Incredible Connection, is the Acer Travelmate C100 notebook. The Travelmate C100 won several design awards from September to November 2002 and has revolutionised mobile computing by uniting the notebook PC of today with the tablet computer of tomorrow.