Zotac signs euro Centerprise deal
Vendor signs first UK distributor
Graphics card newcomer, Zotac, has kicked off its European campaign by signing a distribution contract with Centerprise.
The Chinese company has been operating since 2006 and is quickly building a reputation in the gaming and enthusiast market for solid products. Centerprise is the company’s first UK distributor and it is hoping to use the UK as its base of operations for a European-wide assault.
Zotac is an nVidia-only card maker and the company is keen to get its latest cards, based on the nVidia 8800 GTX and Ultra graphics processing units (GPUs), onto the market.
Simon Greer, vice-president of sales for Europe at Zotac, said: “This is our first distribution deal in the UK and the start of us setting up our European network. Centerprise covers quite a wide base, from retail to independents, and we have worked with it before. We will be targeting the medium and high-end sectors first. We could go after the entry level, but we really want to create the brand now so we will be doing reviews and other things to raise our profile.”
Tara Norris, distribution manager at Centerprise, said: “We have successfully sold two ATI partners for more than three years now, which has been a contributing factor in our growth in graphics. We are more than confident that we can emulate this with nVidia. The market likes more choice and it is rare to see one organisation relying on one board partner.”
The graphics card market is a cut-throat space at the moment and carving out a slice will not be easy considering the number of established players on the scene. However, Greer believes that Zotac has an edge that some of the competition do not.
He said: “We have our own factory, which makes a big difference and the output there is around eight million boards a year for OEMs as well as retail. Many card companies have to work with third-party factories and so can’t control their output.”