Acer India eyes 50% rise in turnover this fiscal

Acer India, a personal computer manufacturer, is expecting its turnover to grow 50 per cent during this financial year from Rs 396 crore in the preceding fiscal.

S Rajendran, general manager (sales and marketing), Acer India, said, "The growth will come from the volume products division (VPD) and retail, education and telecommunications sectors."

The company last week announced the creation of the VPD. Rajendran said the main objective behind creating the division was to capture a big market share in two growing segements: small and medium enterprises and small office/home office. To fuel growth in these segments the firm plans ground-level activities such as publicity and joint partner promotion programmes.

The first phase of Acer India's retail initiatives include the launch of 45 retail stores, called Acer Malls and Acer Points. In the second phase the company would increase the number of outlets to 100.

Meanwhile, Acer India has developed a web-based system, which contains a database of solutions and problems related to computers. Any new problem and solution can also be added to the system by Acer certified engineers.

Rajendran said the company has added over 70 new products to its portfolio in the last three quarters. These, he added, include models of 50 notebooks, five projectors and five LCD monitors. Seven desktop series and two server series were also launched, along with Acer Storage Center.

Rajendran said his company was the first vendor to adopt an aggressive 'value for money' strategy for its notebooks, desktops and servers. The firm introduced TravelMate 240 series, an entry-level Celeron notebook, at a sub-Rs 50,000 price in September 2003. The price was further slashed to Rs 37,999 in June 2004.