Robert Dung

'I do not think this is such a big achievement in the IT world,' says BenQ's regional managing director Robert Dung who set up the BenQ headquarters little more than a year ago. 'We made $45 million in sales last year, and have clear targets for 2002. Sales will be around $100 million'.

But how can an IT-product company grow so fast in the Middle East, from nothing, at a time when the global IT industry is in crisis?

'We provide quality products at very competitive prices,' says Mr. Dung. 'We do have strong competition from Korean, Japanese and European companies, but we have very low operating expenses and the benefits of low-cost labour and production costs in Taiwan, China and Malaysia where we have our manufacturing plants'.

There is no doubt that BenQ has an excellent product range that rivals Korean manufacturers in quality and price advantage.

BenQ products comprise: monitors of all types, from CRTs to plasma display screens and projectors; a full range of mobile phones; digital cameras and scanners; CD-rewriters which are often found inside Hewlett-Packard machines; and communications equipment.

The market share in the Middle East is impressive, after such a short time. BenQ has 10-15% of display monitors, 30% of the scanner market, 17% of CD and DVD drives and 3-5% of the digital projector market.

The change of name to BenQ on December 5th last year marked the emergence of the company from under the wings of Acer Computers. Acer retains a stake in BenQ but the two companies operate completely independently and have separate stock quotations on the Taipei stock market.

This year BenQ is projecting an increase in group sales from last year's total of $3.3 billion to $6.1 billion, a huge leap forward at a difficult time for global IT companies, and a reflection of the competitive advantage enjoyed by Taiwan. The new name is also winning acceptance, and is an acronym for 'Bringing enjoyment and quality to your life'.

'The launch of the new brand name was very challenging, but I think it was easier here in the Middle East than in the United States and Europe,' says Mr. Dung.

'It was much harder for Western countries to accept a new identity than in this region and the Far East. The BenQ brand is aimed at two markets, the corporates for high-end products such as the PDP, and the youth market for stylish IT products'.

Within the next month BenQ plans to roll out three new products: a 46 inch PDP, an LCD TV and a video projector. And Mr. Dung promises that price of PDPs are set to fall drastically this September due to oversupply in certain markets.

It is not hard to see why BenQ has quickly established its position in the Middle East where quality products at competitive prices always receive a good welcome.