Dealer profile - Nazir Jessa, Watford Electronics - Venturing north of Watford Gap.
Company founded: Jessa started selling electrical components from his bedroom in 1972
Watford's headcount: 108
Board members: Nazir Jessa and Bill Mackay, joint managing directors; Shiraz Jessa, sales and marketing director; Raza Jessa, company director; Arif JanMohamed, company director; Robert Shaw, financial director
Company year end: 31 June
Turnover: #28 million (1996)
Profit: #458,000 (1996)
Reseller base: Luton
Other office locations: Watford
Lines sold: Watford's own branded hardware - Aries PCs, scanners, modems and monitors, HP, Epson, Canon, Iomega, Corel, Lotus, Microsoft, Novell, Creative Labs and Panasonic
Accreditation held: Authorised re-seller for the above and authorised education reseller for Microsoft
Awards won: Several Personal Computer World awards (PCW is PC Dealer's sister publication)
Sponsorship: Prince Naseem Hamed, world boxing champion
Key accounts: Education accounts in government authorities
Main distributors: Computer 2000, Ingram Micro, CHS Electronics
Main competitors: Dixons, PC World
The biggest challenge Watford Electronics is going to face this year: Opening more retail stores. This #3 million investment is due to turn the Luton outlet into a superstore by September. Another store is scheduled to open in the north, but we are still discussing its location. The challenge will be finding good staff and integrating the software between the businesses.
Thing to watch in the next 12 months: If you'd asked me six months ago, I would have said: 'watch NetPCs'. But not now - not with PC prices coming down and the internet not taking off as well as it could in the UK.
My prediction is that standard monitors will be replaced by LCD ones.
They are lighter, cleaner, take up less room and the prices are coming down.
The role of distributors: We use them a lot. I think their role will still remain significant for the next two years, but eventually the time will come when people will download software from the Website.
I think the hardware distributors will remain. Suppliers aren't geared to go direct - it is too much of a headache for them and the margins in distribution are far too low.
Issue that would make life easier from a business point of view: Respectable margins and less compatibility problems between different products.
Give your opinion on Tesco selling Siemens Nixdorf and Fujitsu PCs at discount prices (PC Dealer, 15 July):
I think the move by Tesco is a bid to keep its foot in the door of the IT market.
With so many customers coming through its doors, a certain number of PCs are bound to sell. However, I think the supermarket chain will fail when it comes to providing the necessary back-up service. Customers want to talk to someone if they have a faulty computer, but all Tesco can do is give a refund or replace it. The customer will also need printers and peripherals, which the supermarkets will not be able to cope with.
I think Tesco is targeting the wrong market. It may succeed with selling products such as Lotus software, especially for education - parents impulse buy for their children while doing the weekly shop. But few of these customers are going to buy a PC on impulse. In addition, I believe buyers have more confidence in specialist stores than supermarkets.