Acer announces new strategic vision for region

"The consolidation is designed to bring greater internal efficiency to the company, while better enabling the development of a common strategy for product definition and positioning," said Krishna Murthy, General Manager, Acer Computer (M.E.) Ltd.

"Key tenets underlying the new Acer EMEA strategy include: improvement of the company's presence in all regional countries; strengthening of the Acer brand; increase in market share; and implementation of a common channel policy," added Emanuele Accolla Managing Director, Acer Computer MEA.

"In line with our 'customer-centric' philosophy, Acer is taking a bold new direction in consolidating its European and Middle East and Africa operations," said Gianfranco Lanci, chairman of Acer EMEA.

Lanci added, "Acer will now be in position to focus greater resources on its core competencies, such as R&D, product development, demand generation, and channel management. This direction will involve partnership agreements with both major multinational distributors and the most important local businesses."

Financial Results
Despite the difficult economic situation and the drop in the PC market in EMEA in the first half of 2002, Acer EMEA has reported an increase in turnover of 16% compared to the same period last year, and expects to achieve a turnover of 1.4 billion USD for the current year, up 25% from 2001.

Whereas the global PC market is showing a negative growth of -0.5% in the comparison between Q2 of 2001 versus Q2 of 2002, Acer EMEA has achieved a growth of +23.6% in the same period and occupies fifth place among the top market vendors, according to the objectives established in 1999.

Results are even more satisfying in the notebook PC segment and, compared with a global growth of 12.6% (1.97 million units in Q2 of 2002), Acer has achieved 34.6 % and is now third in the classification of top vendors.

The most interesting aspect is that these results have been achieved in spite of a discouraging market scenario: in fact the notebook PC sector has grown considerably, as has the desktop PC sector, notwithstanding the tangible slump in the consumer market.

"Our results confirm that the successful introduction of new product lines, consistent indirect channel strategies, and investments in advertising to increase brand awareness in major countries, have been and will continue to be the key elements of our growth strategy," concluded Lanci.

ENDS