Inventory pile-up leaves mark on Q2 PC sales

Western European shipments nose-dive 21 per cent, with Acer the worst hit, says IDC

The inventory pile-up continued to cast a long shadow over the PC market in the second quarter as western European shipments fell by more than a fifth.

According to IDC's EMEA Quarterly PC Tracker, shipments across EMEA fell by 8.9 per cent year on year in Q2, as sustained high levels of inventories inhibited stronger sell-in from vendors.

Acer, which bailed out its EMEA channel to the tune of $150m (£93m) in June, was the major casualty as the Taiwanese firm's EMEA shipments nose-dived by 40.3 per cent during the quarter.

Western European PC shipments plummeted by 20.9 per cent as consumer sell-in contracted by 32.2 per cent in the face of the tablet boom. Commercial sales in the sub-region fell 4.3 per cent.

Eszter Morvay (pictured), research manager of IDC's EMEA Personal Computing research, told ChannelWeb that the UK, along with Spain, Italy and the Nordics, had been worst hit.

She said the inventory crisis played a part in the demise or bankruptcy of several major players in the region, including PC City in Spain.

Although stock levels are slowly returning to the normal three- to four-week pattern, Q3 and Q4 will be tough, Morvay warned.

"This has cost the channel millions, leaving channel partners with cash flow problems that affect how much they can invest in new stock in Q3 and Q4," she said.

Acer and HP have had to battle against the highest inventory levels but have handled the problem differently, said Morvay.

"HP continued to support its channel. Acer did not support the clearance of inventory until [the $150m bailout] and we are seeing the results for sell-in are even worse than Q1," she added.

HP remained the EMEA market leader, growing shipments by 3.9 per cent to 5.1 million. Acer clung on to second spot, although its shipments plunged from 4.7 million to 2.8 million year on year. Dell and Asus were close behind, shifting 2.5 million and two million PCs respectively, with Lenovo rounding out the top five with shipments of 1.4 million.