Asda throws down PC gauntlet

Asda has entered the PC market after it teamed up with Viglen and leapt onto the PC supermarket sales sweep bandwagon for a trial period.

Until 4 October, Asda will ship PCs to all 219 stores, instead of the gradual launch that Tesco adopted. The supermarket's move comes in the wake of Tesco's successful pilot selling PCs from Fujitsu and Siemens Nixdorf (PC Dealer, 12 August).

The Asda scheme will sell a Viglen Celeron-based 300MHz PC at the same #799 price point as the Tesco Pentium II PC. The scheme is initially planned for only one month, to coincide with children returning to school.

Bordan Tkachuk, chief executive of Viglen, said: 'Our latest joint initiative with Asda is an ideal way for parents to give their children the best possible start to the new school year.'

Viglen already focuses on the education market, claiming to be the supplier of choice to more than 60 per cent of UK universities: 'We intend to strengthen our presence in British schools where we are fast becoming a significant supplier of personal computers and IT networks,' said Tkachuk.

Since Viglen demerged from its former parent company, Amstrad, last year, its share price has experienced volatile trading. Its share price peaked in late 1997, holding at around 85p with the announcement of its deal to badge Microsoft machines. However, the failure of this has led to a steady decline in share value, reaching a low of 16.5p recently.

The industry has also been waiting for Asda to respond to its arch rival Tesco by starting to sell PCs. George O' Connor, research analyst at Granville, said: 'Supermarkets appeal to consumers who want an easy path to purchase and to vendors that are looking to mix and match channels, trying to catch as many customers as possible. There is still a huge gap in the consumer market that is not being hit.'

See feature page 28.