PCR Tech and IT retail, distribution and vendor news
After raking in a whopping 22 per cent of PC sales in the UK for Q3 (according to Gartner), Acer is looking to sign up a series of retailers across the country to its Experience Centre scheme, essentially creating an own-brand retail operation.
The push follows the news that Hannspree is to open its own branded store, highlighting a growing trend of vendors going it alone on the High Street.
“Over the last six months I’ve been looking to find firms willing to join us in this joint business venture,” said Linda Hassall, retail account manager at Acer, who is heading up the project.
“The two stores I’ve currently got signed up are PC Paramedics in Woking and Black Box in Preston. Those two stores have decided to go 100 per cent Acer, so it is the only computing brand in those stores – though the pre-requisite isn’t 100 per cent, it’s about 50 per cent of the store needs to be Acer-focused.
“Over the past few months we’ve worked on a total refit and refurbishment, from knocking own walls to laying carpets to putting in Acer-branded displays.”
The vendor will be pushing to attract more vendors to the scheme over the next 12 months. “Ongoing, we are looking to recruit another 12 to14 major cities for the next year in the UK, in all the major connections, all the major towns, and really I’m going on a big recruitment drive now trying to get these independents signed up,” Hassall added.
