Acer deals up plan to double channel
Vendor also aims to achieve similar increase in desktop sales
Acer has bullishly announced that it intends to double both its UK reseller base and desktop sales this year.
The vendor told CRN it currently has about 5,100 generic partners in the UK.
Gianfranco Lanci, president of Acer, said the firm needs more partners because future market growth will be high. Lanci claimed infrastructure upgrades and low interest rates will stimulate demand. "Indirect sales in Europe are growing quickly," he added.
Lanci said Acer is committed to its channel. "Margins for direct sales are down to 12 to 14 per cent, from levels as high as 20 per cent, so any advantage has disappeared," he said. "Direct sales also mean that as a company grows, so do its sales costs."
The firm is planning no new channel discounting or support deals, but it is expanding its support call centre and spares supply chain.
Lanci was bullish about European growth, pointing out that Russia, Turkey and Greece's IT markets grew by between 34 and 46 per cent in the past year. In comparison, the UK market grew by just 10.9 per cent.
Paul Cook, UK managing director of Acer, said the firm is already pushing to double its desktop business and grow UK net revenues by 60 per cent.
Acer has set a target of supplying at least a quarter of the systems bought under the Laptops for Teachers initiative and hopes to become a key provider of Home Computing Initiatives, Cook added.
The vendor has recently been named top laptop manufacturer in Europe by analyst Dataquest.
"Schools are buying laptops for teachers but they are buying from local educational authorities (LEAs)," said Ben Parker, education manager at reseller Datapact.
"If you want to sell in volume you need to get the LEA on your side. We are finding that services are a good way forward - showing schools how to use their new hardware. Teachers get handed these things and need to be advised on how to get the best out of them."