On May 22, 2024, a press conference dedicated to the company’s EMEA business strategy was held at the headquarters of Acer’s European division (Biogio, Switzerland). Speakers told the participants about the history and current state of affairs. They also shared their vision of the basic principles, tools and concepts relevant to modern commercial activities. The main speakers were: Emmanuelle Fromont (Corporate Vice President and Head of Acer EMEA), Massimiliano Rossi (Vice President of Acer EMEA, Head of Business Products, Commercial and Customer Services) and Christina Pez (Commercial Director of Sales and Marketing at Acer EMEA).

Brief historical background. The company was founded in 1976 under the name Multitech International. In 1987, it changed its name to Acer. Ten years later, Acer acquired the Extensa and TravelMate laptop business and brand from Texas Instruments, which allowed it to become one of the world’s largest PC manufacturers. The products are manufactured at contracted factories under ODM projects. Since then, for almost fifty years in a row, they have been constantly adapting and expanding their product range to meet the current challenges of the times. Acer’s current business model is built on indirect distribution channels, a broad product portfolio, service, and simple and effective sales tools.

Let’s give you some dry numbers:

The company’s consolidated revenues for the past year amounted to NT$241 billion (equivalent to approximately USD 7.5 billion);
The company has more than 7700 employees;
Products are sold in more than 160 countries;
There are about 95 thousand points of sale in the world;
70% of the business is personal computers;
Over the past 10 months, all the company’s indicators have been growing.

Business statistics for the EMEA region: its contribution to the company’s total revenue is 24.7%. The company employs approximately 2000 people. In total, the region has 26 sales offices, 8 service centers, 10 call centers and one logistics warehouse in the Netherlands.

The central core of Acer’s business consists of consumer PC devices. It is complemented by a broad and not widely visible area of industrial solutions for science, manufacturing and medicine. And a new area of development is lifestyle products – mainly electric vehicles such as scooters, bicycles and scooters. In the EMEA region, all sales are made indirectly through partners, which total more than 35,000 in more than 50 countries.

Acer defines the main value of its products as two factors: innovative technologies and sustainable environmental friendliness. The first category includes such current technologies as green design (i.e., the use of recyclable materials), wear-resistant device construction, technologies based on artificial intelligence (PurifiedVoice, PurifiedView, TravelMate Sense), a set of technologies and applications designed to preserve vision, commercial technologies (OfficeManager, ProShielPlus, Commercial BIOS), and the latest 3D solutions from SpatialLabs.

To support sustainable business practices, Acer manufactures its device cases from recycled plastic (up to 60% of the composition), which reduces the demand for virgin raw materials. We also use fully recyclable packaging materials. Printing is carried out using non-toxic substances. The devices can be disassembled, repaired and modernized. This extends their service life and reduces the amount of electronic waste.

Acer’s business is built on five core approaches. They include:

Environmental friendliness. Responsible suppliers and partners contribute to a closed economic cycle of production, support, and ecological disposal of goods.
Broad product portfolio. The range includes not only goods, but also programs and services and their full support.
Partner ecosystem. Products are sold exclusively through an ecosystem of partners, which allows us to effectively create solutions to meet specific needs.
Service support. Acer has an extensive network of its own service and call centers. It provides an extended warranty, repair, or replacement.
Service subscription. The provision of equipment and services is based on a subscription model, which reduces the “total cost of ownership” and promotes a closed economic cycle with fewer irreversible costs and waste.

The sales focus is on four sectors:

Small and medium-sized businesses (Win systems, productivity, security, hybrid and remote work, environmental friendliness, AI technologies);
Medium-sized cloud businesses (public employees, healthcare, kiosks);
Public sector (government organizations, municipality, local administrations);
Education (school education, devices for teachers, higher education, laboratories).

Sales channels in Europe are distributed in a 60% to 40% ratio by volume. The first 60% are managed partners (about 5 thousand) with different levels of affiliate programs. The remaining 40% consists of a large number of individual sellers (more than 30 thousand points of sale).

The Synergy partner certification programs for managed partners are divided into platinum level (companies and government organizations with 500 employees or more), gold level (100 to 499 employees), and authorized level (small companies with 10-99 employees, SOHO segment, and businesses with 1 to 9 employees). There are separate programs for educational partners and cloud services. Each program has a regular and premium level of cooperation.

In terms of sales channel tools, in addition to the usual tools such as lead generation and incentive programs, the company uses a smart financing service and Acer Device as a Service. They provide a flexible approach to regulating the required number of IT devices used by customers. This helps to reduce the carbon footprint and e-waste when it comes time to replace devices, and helps to strengthen long-term relationships with channel partners and end users.

Direct product support is also comprehensive. They are supported by training and demonstration programs. On the service side, customers have a 100% money-back guarantee, an extended device warranty, and additional services. The most interesting service option offered by Acer is Trade-in Express. Customers can return their old devices, they are instantly evaluated, and an equivalent discount is provided when purchasing a new product.

Acer places a great deal of emphasis on its network of service centers to build customer loyalty. They are fully owned and controlled by the company. This allows us to respond to market demands in a timely manner, optimize the repair process and control its quality.

The environmental business is gradually becoming a separate independent business for Acer. An independent subsidiary, Enfinitec, was established in 2023 to repair, service and recycle a wide range of different products (not only Acer) under the white label concept. This company already employs more than a thousand people and has eight representative offices in the largest European countries.

This was a brief overview of Acer’s current business model in EMEA. You will be able to learn more about the manufacturer’s current product range for business users and new products in the next article.