One of the star performers in BMI-T`s 4th Quarter PC Monitor Report is PCI, a division of Softline Limited. The company`s Vision brand showed exceptionally strong growth, with a 219% gross percentage increase from Q4 96 to Q4 97.The report describes the phenomenal rise: "A new high-flyer among the big five is Vision, which grew its unit shipments by 31 percent during the fourth quarter. The company attributed this growth to a successful retail campaign and intensive marketing over the Christmas period, coupled with the company remaining fully operational throughout the entire month of December."PCI founder and MD, Gary Smith, says the Vision brand was only established in September 1996 and came from being a virtually unknown product to be among the top five leading brands in South Africa, according to the report. "We now have 4.9% of the total market share," adds Smith. In the Desktop section, Vision shipped in excess of 6900 units in Q4 97, representing a substantial 5.6% of the market, pushing the brand up to the number five spot. Smith is very positive about the future. "We are still getting started in this business, as we were traditionally component distributors. In the PC assembly market we found strong demand for our Vision brand but we had limited manufacturing capacity at first. By paying particular attention to quality control, testing and assembly processes we kept our growth manageable to ensure our high level of service remained the same."PCI is now gearing up for increased production by building a professional manufacturing plant which Smith describes as "unparalleled". It will have the capability of producing 5 000 to 6 000 PCs per month. Smith is confident that this expanded capacity will cater for higher market demand, with the increased supply of the high quality range of Vision PCs. The company will move to the new facility in May.In line with its goal of operational excellence, PCI is improving service levels and furthering its expansion with the employment of an additional 60 plus people in the sales, manufacturing and warehousing divisions. Smith says apart from the company`s retail campaign, he attributes Vision`s success to strong dealers in the corporate market. "We have a large and very active dealer base which is the source of much of our business, and it is this arena to which we will pay attention in the months to come."We expect further growth and are looking to increase sales steadily quarter to quarter."
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