Comet takes Daewoo nationwide

Retailer extends Daewoo agreement on budget PCs as the Korean consolidates retail and distribution deals.

Electrical goods retailer Comet has extended its agreement withonsolidates retail and distribution deals. Daewoo Electronics to sell the Korean chaebol's budget PCs throughout the UK.

Following an initial agreement earlier this year, the Daewoo boxes will be sold in more than 230 UK stores (PC Dealer, 12 August).

According to Comet, part of the large Kingfisher group, the retailer is planning to stock up with PCs to take advantage of the pre-Christmas rush.

The #599 Daewoo systems will incorporate the Natsemi-Cyrix MII-333 chip and come with a 14in monitor, 32Mb of memory, a 56kbps modem, a 3.4Gb hard drive, AGP graphics, Windows 98 and Lotus software.

Comet will also offer its customers the option of buying a printer and scanner as part of the package.

The Daewoo boxes will be stacked at the front of Comet stores to attract the immediate attention of customers.

Graham Jackson, European applications manager at Cyrix Europe, said: 'This latest retail win is a reflection of the considerable recent commercial success of Cyrix-based systems.'

Hot on the heels of the nationwide deal struck with Comet, sources said Daewoo has scored a similar deal with UK retail chain Dixons.

Daewoo machines have started appearing in selected Currys and Dixons outlets and the deal will be replicated across the country. No one from Dixons was available to comment.

Daewoo's foray into the UK computer market was marked in August when the vendor signed an exclusive distribution agreement with Datrontech.

It also signed up Tekdata to distribute its monitors. Both partners also have the option to sell Daewoo notebooks.