Tandon wheels in big guns to gain ground.

Tandon has set its sights on UK resellers with an offer ofunparalleled quality, flexibility and keen pricing. But what are itsprospects for reviving a once successful, but now all-but-dead brand?

Tandon is back and it means business. The venerable computer vendor which returned quietly to the UK last autumn is now ready to make a bigger splash.

The Redditch-based company is embarking on a dealer recruitment campaign, based on direct mailings and the reseller press, as part of a programme to build UK reseller numbers. Since opening up for business again in the UK, Tandon has assembled a dealer customer base of between 70 and 80 active accounts. It wants to top up numbers - in due course - to some 300.

Tandon is basing its strategy on its appeal to the neglected mid-market, operating between the high-end brands and the no-namers. It is offering a customised configuration service, dealer credit through a tie-in with Venture Factors, and it promises keen pricing. It believes this combination of quality and pricing will enable it to woo back customers.

But most of all it offers the Tandon name. UK general manager Alok Kapoor points out that there are more than 200,000 Tandon machines in the UK.

'We have on our side a well-established name - though the UK has been largely dormant over the past few years - and a flexibility that few others can match.'

This flexibility is based on the company's configuration service. Tandon UK keeps a stock of basic models, sourced from a US manufacturer. And it adds upgrades and add-ons, according to the individual needs of each customer.

Tandon believes this is its key selling point - both for users and resellers.

'Big brands do not show this kind of flexibility, except to the very largest accounts,' Kapoor says.

At its zenith in 1991, Tandon maintained an active dealer base of 672 names. For a short, heady time it was the number three vendor in the UK, behind IBM and Compaq. It was just as successful in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Spain, and also did reasonable business in France. But in the early 90s, the climate grew distinctly chilly for the company as recession hit.

Over a period of three years Tandon seemed to suffer death by a thousand cuts. One by one, the various trading and manufacturing subsidiaries were either closed down or sold off. The UK subsidiary, TCC, finally collapsed in June 1994 with u1 million in debts.

So, what went wrong? Kapoor is quite open: 'We learned that the US was a tough market to operate in,' he says ruefully. Too right, it was. Tandon was killed by its dismal US performance. The company's inability to operate profitably in its home market left it severely weakened when recession came in the early 1990s.

While other US manufacturers were nursing their European subsidiaries through the recession, Tandon had to rely on its European arm to prop up the US parent. This meant there was little slack in the group to cope with the collapse in PC margins of the early 1990s.

'We stretched ourselves too thin,' Kapoor admits.

What did Tandon learn from this? Simple, Kapoor says. 'One can never take one's eye off the ball - margins are too tight to allow any room for mistakes. You have to look to the detail, to make sure your marketing, operations and sales are finely tuned. And we will concentrate on Europe, where we were strongest. The US is too tough a market right now - you only have to look at AST's struggles to see just how tough it is.'

When the idea of a Tandon relaunch was first mooted, it met with scepticism.

Joe Hemani, MD of Westcoast, said a reborn Tandon would struggle to make an impression. 'I'd say there is nothing new it can offer - direct sellers like Gateway and distributors like me already offer configuration.'

But Kapoor is confident that dealers will return to the Tandon fold.

He admits he was originally worried that UK resellers would reject the company's overtures but, he says: 'We have not come across the sort of resistance we feared we might get from resellers who got upset when Tandon cut down its activities in the European market.'

The reason for this, he believes, is that dealers are taking a commercial view of Tandon's prospects. 'We were always straightforward and honest in our dealings with the channel. When things got tough, we told our resellers,' he says.

Tandon, which trades in the UK under the name Tantec Computers Ltd, is still owned by the Asian-Californian Tandon family. The boss this time around is Rajeev Tandon, son of company founder Jugi.

The company is also trading in Spain, where sales have increased six-fold in the past six months.

Kapoor says the UK is running some way behind Spain, but he is confident of catching up. 'We want market share, but we want to earn it, not buy it,' he says. 'We are in this for the long-term - we know it is going to take time, but we are convinced there is room for us.

The market is growing so fast we can win sales without taking business from anyone else.'

And as for the company's prospects for reviving the Tandon brand, Kapoor accepts that there are no examples of a successfully revived computer brand, but points out: 'Just because you haven't seen any comeback before, doesn't mean it won't happen in the future. There is a first time for everything - like Sri Lanka winning the World Cup.'