Tower joins growing ranks of dealers to desert Acorn

Retail Vendor loses support of resellers as Risc 2 PC saga continues.

Resellers are turning away from Acorn's channel as uncertaintytinues. continues to grow over the future of the Acorn Risc 2 PC.

Tower Electronics is the latest dealer to turn its back on the vendor following St Albans reseller Beebug's decision to close its retail arm when the Risc PC market began to dry up (PC Dealer, 28 October).

Tom Waller, managing director of Tower Electronics, said the company would continue to sell PCs and honour Acorn warranties.

But he added: 'I will not take on any additional Acorn systems sales for both hardware and software unless a dramatic change in the way things seem to be going is evident.'

Sources said desertions will continue as resellers reassessed their business models following the scrapping of the #2 million Risc 2 PC project by Acorn in September.

The cancellation of the initiative has been compounded by Acorn's reluctance to re-examine its channel structure and move it towards a PC channel model.

David Coronel, managing director of Bromley Acorn reseller The DataStore, said: 'We are no longer able to maintain an Acorn-only environment in our showroom and Acorn sales have shrunk to about 20 per cent of the business.'

He added: 'Many areas of the industry have had a sense of impending doom for years which has increased recently.'

Jack Lillingston, managing director of Castle Technology, which was recently appointed an Acorn distributor said: 'It's sad for the industry to lose dealers, but at the moment, it is going through a rationalisation period to get it back on a good footing.'

He added: 'We are about to appoint two resellers and expect the list to grow.'