Taiwan's Acer, the world's fourth-largest PC maker, wants to challenge Dell and Lenovo Group in their home markets, as it aims to boost sales of its own brand by up to 40 percent in 2006.
Acer, which ranks below Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Lenovo in the global market, aims sales of Acer-branded laptops and desktops to reach $10 billion to $11 billion next year versus $8 billion in 2005, Acer President Gianfranco Lanci said.
The Taiwanese firm's growth plan hinges on recently secured deals with retailers and distributors such as Circuit City Stores and Staples in the United States and Digital China Holdings and Ingram Micro in China, Lanci said Tuesday. Self-branded computers now account for 80 to 85 percent of the company's overall revenue, he added.
"We want to be No. 3 (globally) by 2007," he said ahead of a briefing to outline Acer's new strategy for China, where homegrown Lenovo controls about a third of the market.
"We think we can pass Lenovo" in global market share, he said.
In the second quarter, Dell was the world's top PC seller with 19 percent of the market, followed by Hewlett-Packard at 15.4 percent, Lenovo at 7.5 percent and Acer at 4.4 percent, according to market researcher IDC.
North America and China are the two biggest growth areas for Acer, with the company aiming to double sales in both markets in 2006, said Lanci, who assumed his post in January.
Despite Dell's dominance of its home market, Acer intends to ramp up North American sales of PCs bearing its label to $2 billion in 2006--or about a fifth of global Acer-brand sales, versus 11 to 12 percent this year.
In China, Lanci hopes Acer-branded PC sales would account for 4 to 5 percent of global sales this year, or about $320 million.
The PC maker is expected to chalk up overall revenue of $9 billion in 2005 and $11.5 billion in 2006, including sales of products not carrying its brand, according to the mean of 16 analysts polled by Reuters Estimates.
Acer is arguably Taiwan's best-known tech brand, in a sector where large but little-known companies from Hon Hai Precision Industries to Compal Electronics make products under contract for the likes of Hewlett-Packard.
Analysts fear Acer's growth ambitions will trim profitability. But Lanci said he expects growth in operating income to outpace revenue expansion as the company keeps a lid on costs.
Lanci argued that Acer would meet its ambitious goals in China with just a 60 percent jump in staff in coming years, to about 400 people. It would need only to add 50 people in North America to hit its aggressive growth target, he said. |
