Iomega 1Q South Asian Sales Picking Up After '98 Fall-Execs
Dow Jones Newswires
March 16, 1999 .... Dow Jones Newswires
SINGAPORE -- Iomega Pacific Pte. Ltd., the regional arm of U.S.-based Iomega Corp. (IOM), is registering an increase in sales in the first quarter from the southeast and south Asia region, after seeing its sales fall in 1998, company executives said Tuesday.
"In the past couple of months, we have been seeing an uptake (in sales)...in 1998, there was a contraction," Kevin Lee, the company's director of sales/marketing for the Asia Pacific, told Dow Jones Newswires.
"Overall, the market is growing (now)," he added. However, he declined to give details of contributions from the region to the overall group.
Apart from a price cut Tuesday for one of its major products, the company will be launching new initiatives to expand the sale of its computer storage products to personal computer makers, retail channels and the corporate market, said Iomega's country manager Lum Choong Eu, who was also present at the interview.
The company Tuesday cut the price of its 100-megabyte Zip drive to US$99, from US$119. The company is a market leader for removable storage drives.
According to U.S. research company International Data Corp., Iomega has a 86% market share globally for removable storage products.
The Asian economic downturn coupled with the sluggishness in the global electronics industry caused a contraction in Iomega's Asian sales in 1998, the executives said. Unlike rigid hard disk drive makers, the company sells drives that are portable and can be used to backup critical information.
Part of the sales boost in early 1999 has come from the linkup with two PC makers, who will install Iomega drives in their systems, said Lee. The company has just signed deals, traditionally called original equipment manufacturing, with PC makers in China and Vietnam.
Apart from Singapore, sales are growing in all its Asian markets with the exception of Indonesia, said Lee. "The momentum is there," Lee told Dow Jones, adding that the company wants to expand its distribution network.
It plans to get its existing distributors to address the corporate market for PCs, which is expected to grow strongly, said Lee. "We feel there are substantial opportunities in the corporate market," he said.
Another push in the next quarter is to sell its newly launched its 40-megabyte Clik! drives, targeted mainly at the consumer electronics market. The most immediate application for the product will be in digital cameras, said company officials.
Iomega plans to build sales and marketing channels for the Clik! drive as its existing channels have a different orientation, said Lee.
-By Joseph Rajendran; 65 421 4800.
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