The FINANCIAL — Acme Computer Components (ACC) – the fastest growing computer components and peripherals wholesaler in the Baltics, has entered the Georgian Market with ambitious plans.
According to Regimantas Bouzious, CEO of ACC, though the company only started sales in January 2008, they are expecting a USD 10 million turnover this year.
In 2007 ACC turnover was EUR 157 million; in 2008, the figure is expected to reach EUR 200 million.
“In a period of two years we are going to become number 1 in IT distribution in Georgia and in three years – the leader in the region,” said the CEO of ACC.
The official presentation on June 26 in Bazaleti was organized by Wizard, a local advertising and events company.
Mirian Tsintskaladze was appointed Executive Director of ACC Acme Georgia (ACG) and Aleks Datuashvili – Product-Marketing Director with a team of over 8 people.
“It‘s a constantly growing company, providing services of exceptional quality. Young, enthusiastic and proactive staff are working in cooperation with partners to make ACG the leading IT hardware wholesaler in Georgia,” Tsintskaladze stated.
In his words, investment is basically made in staff and products. At this stage, they already have approximately USD 1 million and half a warehouse. The volume of investment is already USD 2 million, but there are also investments made in human resources.
ACG offers its dealers various products: Computer components: VGA, MB, CPU; Computer peripherals: Monitors, printers, scanners, keyboards, mice, speakers, PC cameras, multimedia projectors, UPS as well as digital cameras, camcorders, copiers, faxes and networking.
ACC was established in 1998. According to representatives of ACC, the company started with only two employees whist today they have 312 personal, 90 vendors and 2,500 clients.
The Head Office of ACC is in Kaunas, Lithuania. As for sales offices, they are located in Vilnius, Riga, Talin, Kaliningrad and since 2007 – in Georgia.
As the CEO of ACC declared, they chose Georgia as the company sees great market potential in the country.
“The population in Lithuania is 3.4 million and in Georgia – 4.5 million. This fact is one of the reasons to start a successful business here,” Bouzious said. “In Lithuania, 120,000 PCs (laptops) have already been sold, in Georgia only 22,000 PCs, which is another reason.”
According to the CEO, IT market volume in Georgia by 2008 was USD 140-150 million and in Lithuania they expect USD 580-600 million. As for the total area of warehouse space, it is 3,000 sq.m in Lithuania, Latvia – 2,000, and Georgia – 500.
“Factually in the Georgian market we don’t have any rivals yet, but we know they will appear soon. It’s easy to copy a form of success, but it’s very hard to do successful business. We have our secrets, also the ambition to be number 1 in the region,” claimed Bouzious.
As he stated ACC market strategy is flexibility and ability to react to the changes in the market, aggressiveness, motivated and competent staff, a constantly expanding product portfolio, client-oriented strategy.
“In Georgia there are some companies which are doing everything; they are working with dealers and are engaged in the retail business. We work only with dealers, which means a more easy and comfortable relationship as we’re committed to leading the company’s policy accurately,” Tsintskaladze said.
As he noted, ACG has only one demand for its dealers – they must sell their product regularly. Dealers should be shops or companies with several computer based corporations.
“Usually we look for potential dealers, research their activity, help them in development and don’t obstacle their way to becoming dealers. Maybe a company opened only one week ago, but it must grow, so we help them,” Tsintskaladze told The FINANCIAL.
“We have our staff who look for dealers. But very rarely, potential dealers contact us and after negotiations, they become our dealers. If there are reseller organizations and we have information about their activities and potential, we start working with them,” he added.
ACG offers Georgian dealers B2B e-commerce, which includes 24-hour access, product assortment, product booking, product promotions, and warranty and out-of-warranty product repair registration.
“In Baltic countries 95% comes to internet orders and that’s why we launched the same service in Georgia. A dealer can enter http://shop.acme.ge, see all offered products, choose them and then order,” said Tsintskaladze.
B2B, Business-to-business is a term commonly used to describe electronic commerce transactions between businesses.
The volume of B2B transactions is much higher than the volume of B2C transactions. One reason for this is that businesses have adopted electronic commerce technologies in greater numbers than consumers. Also, in a typical supply chain there will be many B2B transactions but only one B2C transaction, as the completed product is retailed to the end customer.
An example of a B2B transaction is a chicken feed company selling its product to a chicken farm, which is another company. An example of a B2C transaction is a grocery store selling grain-fed chickens to a consumer. B2B can also describe marketing activities between businesses, not just the final transactions that result from marketing, though the term can be used to identify sales transactions between businesses (also referred to as “institutional sales”). A company selling photocopiers would more likely be a B2B sales organization than a B2C sales organization.
“Business-to-Business” can also refer to all transactions made in an industry value chain before the finished product is sold to the end consumer.
“Electronic transactions are not difficult, the person registers online and gets access to product by categories, puts in their credit details and receives an invoice for all the products he bought. If a client orders a large amount of products, he receives a discount,” said Tsintskaladze.
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