Acer punts Gateway as a business unit for Europe

THE ACER GROUP outlined a further tranche of its multi-brand strategy here in London this morning with the launch of its European Gateway business arm.

Acer acquired Gateway and its emachines brand along with Packard Bell over a year ago and developed what it calls a multi-brand strategy in which it targets different products at different market segments in different geographical locations.

In the US the Gateway name has been – and remains – popular in the consumer marketplace. In EMEA, Acer has decided to pin the Gateway logo on a tightly-focused unit pitched at the mid-market business channel.

Acer loathes the direct model and so its Gateway business unit will be entirely channel focused. The firm has chosen to use a single distributor in each of the countries it will do business in.

Initially those countries are Italy, Spain, the UK, Germany, the Nordics, Benelux and France. Its distributor of choice in most of these countries is Techdata (C2000 in the UK). In Italy it chose Esprinet, because, the firm said, the distributor had the best profile in SMEs.

"The direct approach has always been a certain percentage of the marketplace and that has not changed much over the years. We sell online and if a customer comes to our site and wants to buy something they can. But our infrastructure is built up to sell indirect," Acer worldwide marketing VP Gianpiero Morbello told the INQ. "With a hybrid model you don't know if you're outsourcing or doing. This is why Gateway is fully focused on the indirect channel, leveraging the expertise of our partners."

In this space, "Gateway may be a new brand, but it's not a newcomer. It is credible because it has Acer behind it."

While other companies may be daunted by the downturn Morbello admits the bleak economic outlook offers opportunities for the Taiwan-based Italian managed company.

"In terms of organisation efficiency," Morbello continues, "Acer is probably best in class. We are known for strong product development and for value for money and value for money is what everyone is looking for now.

"So we're facing the crisis in very good shape. The organisation is already effective, we won't need to cut people. We have the right brand proposition, we're flexible enough and now we have a range of smartphones to complete our product prospectus.

"We're keeping our investment in marketing, keeping our sponsorships and were investing more than ever in product development. So yes we are in far better shape than some of our competitors."

In the business space into which Acer is hurling the Gateway brand, HP is dominant, says Morbello, but then there are a bunch of companies – the likes of Lenovo, Fujitsu Siemens and Toshiba – whom Morbello identifies as vulnerable. With its aggressive expansionist approach, Acer is confident it can pinch some market share in the space.

Initial products in Gateway's portfolio include ranges of three business notebooks three desktop offerings, a sprinkling of servers and a couple of LCD displays. The package is backed up by a suite of remote management services which is operated by Gateway for the benefit of its channel partners and their customers. µ

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