Lenovo, Mustek join forces in SME segment

Lenovo South Africa and Mustek have signed a distribution deal in which Mustek will spearhead Lenovo's expansion within the small and medium-sized business (SME) sector.

“Although we're already growing faster than the market, both in South Africa and globally, we have no intention of taking our foot off the accelerator,” says Lenovo South Africa country manager, Henry Ferreira. “We're targeting expansion in specific sectors, of which SMB is one of the most significant.

“Mustek has a decades-long track record of serving that market and provides us, in a single partnership, with a breadth and depth of reach that would otherwise take us much longer to achieve.

“In addition, Mustek shares our view that the existing distribution channel must not be cannibalised by taking market share from other organisations to boost Lenovo's slice of the pie. Both companies believe that simply reapportioning the pie is destructive to the industry as a whole. Together, we're going to go after entirely new business, growing the pie, Mustek, and Lenovo at the same time.”

Ivan Barnard, Lenovo product manager at Mustek, says the combination of Lenovo and Mustek is a powerful growth engine for the distribution and reseller channel. “Because we've always had such a tight focus on SMBs, we have tremendous insight into what creates growth for companies in that sector - and resellers are SMBs.

“We'll therefore be bringing our expertise to bear not only on acquiring new channel members, but also being proactive in helping them grow. The Lenovo business partner channel (Club Lenovo) will add impetus to that process through rebates, training, and other incentives.

“And, of course, we as Mustek have always provided exceptional support to our channel through insisting on becoming in-house service providers to our vendors, and thereby controlling the quality of service provided to customers. So, our resellers trust us to back them up by backing up their customers.

“Our service focus also enables us to offer warranties over and above Lenovo's own exceptional service and product guarantees. Overall, therefore, Mustek and Lenovo have the means to make an extremely practical positive difference to the channel and to the market at large.”

Mustek will distribute Lenovo's full range of products on a national basis, with the Think range being aimed at SMEs and the Idea range at retail outlets.

“Again, we'll have a strong focus on SMB-sized retailers, helping to boost their market credibility by giving them access to Lenovo's superior products,” Barnard says.

Ferreira says Lenovo sees Africa as its next big emerging market and has put in place clear objectives for expansion into sub-Saharan Africa.

“Another reason for our partnering with Mustek is that it has an established presence in key markets such as Kenya, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe, and with its focus on in-house service and support, can augment our service strategy in areas we could not otherwise reach.

“For all of which reasons, we see our agreement with Mustek as an important next step in both our short and long-term strategy.”