Q&A: Acer on bringing Gateway to the UK

AP: It is [just] a matter of time. You are not selling a simple configuration to a retailer in the UK [like] Dixons one configuration, one price, and you can sell this many units in one shot We are selling servers.

The process is longer than clients because client is very simple simple configuration, simple price and go ahead. With servers it is completely different and with the new setup we have in the UK I think we can probably speed the activities up.

JK: You guys know you have got to have that strong foundation [with everything] tidied up, so all the 'I's dotted, all the 'T's crossed, and that is where we are at now.

We have got the partners and we are working but we are now ready to grow that and expand that. The feedback has been positive. The UK has been a very dominated market. We all know by who, but there is absolutely a hunger there for an alternative.

The second thing is doing the due diligence. A small group will come in and test us out, test orders, see how things work, see how quickly we can turn around quotes and these are things that are fighting against the business so [they] want to test the promises before they wholeheartedly jump on board.

That's a very - I don't want to stereotype - classic "I want to make sure everything is [ok] before I go full throttle." So we have certainly been tested by a number of partners on turn around time on quotes. I think the fastest we have turned around a quote was for about 2,500 units and we did it in 35 minutes.

Once we show repeatedly we can do that in [the UK] then we can go whereas other countries are much quicker to adopt.

How long do you think Gateway will take to become a household name in the UK server market?

AP: I think the first step is getting the right set-up and then we can see the results. Starting from the second part of the year, from September, things will move very fast in terms of sales, in terms of revenues, in terms of ambition in the UK.

The target we have across EMEA countries [is] we want to reach 10 per cent market share. This means [we] also want to reach the market share of 10 per cent in the UK. It is automatic.

We are a coming a little bit later in the UK with the right structure [compared to other EMEA countries] so probably [it] will be the last one to reach 10 per cent.