Acer admits to shortage of stock
PC manufacturer's distributors struggling to get what they need from Acer
Acer has admitted it is struggling to meet the stock demands of its UK distributors. The situation is a stark contrast to the beginning of the year when Acer’s distributors were unhappy at the amount of stock they were being asked to hold.
Stuart Watson, product manager at VIP Computers, said: “We have been struggling to get what we need from Acer since the end of August. I would say this is because Acer has been very aggressive on price lately: when stock lands, it is cleared out in just a few days.
“We are still able to maintain our margins because demand is so high. We definitely prefer it this way than having too much stock.”
Steve Lockie, managing director of Computer 2000, said: “There are a few product lines we are screaming out for: we’re struggling on desktops and displays, but we are OK on notebooks.
“I think there have been some memory component shortages, which has hurt a few vendors, not just Acer, so that could be one reason for it, but Acer also had a very strong third quarter.”
Jon Atherton, group vice-president of commercial at Enta Technologies, said: “In the past couple of weeks Acer’s products have been going through the roof. Its price points are very attractive to resellers and the product specification is good, so VARs are just snapping up the products. Acer has also improved its service levels over the past four to six months.”
Semmy Levit, Acer UK country manager, told CRN: “It is true that we don’t have enough stock in the channel. This is because Q3 was very strong and we are also having a strong Q4, so we are struggling to get enough stock to meet the distributor demand. It is a complete reversal to the situation at the beginning of the year when our distributors were holding more stock than they wanted to.”