Lenovo to hit the high street

Lenovo (HKSE: 0992) has revealed plans to move away from the relative comfort of the enterprise space in a bid to win market share in the SMB and retail markets.
Milko Van Duijl, senior VP of mature markets unveiled a two-pronged strategy at Lenovo’s Channel Partner Conference in Amsterdam this week. He said the company wanted to protect its core market, China, and its strong position in the public sector and the enterprise. He went on to outline plans to attack the SMB space – where the firm’s presence is negligible – retail and emerging markets.
“If you want to be one of the biggest companies in the word, you have to grow in consumer,” he said.
New markets
Apart from “a small number” of global accounts that it serves directly, Van Duijl says Lenovo is reliant on its channel partner network. “We’re not a services company; we’re not buying a services company...We are a true PC business, and we’re moving more and more business through the channel.”
The firm says it is in good shape in Europe, outgrowing the market over the last four quarters.
In the UK, where it claims 5.7 percent of the PC market, Lenovo works with distributors Ingram Micro, Micro-P and ISI. Last September saw the firm launch a campaign to recruit 8000 new SMB resellers across Europe, and has so far signed up around 6100.
Vice president SMB, consumer & channel for Lenovo Western Europe, David McQuarrie said the firm’s investment in its channel this year would finance back end tools for partners, as well as ‘refining’ incentives and rebates.
Lenovo has singled out the UK and Germany as the two markets it will launch its push into retail. The firm already has relationships in the US with Best Buy and Office Depot, and according to McQuarrie, it could replicate those relationships in the UK.
Advertising campaign
Lenovo is also investing in a major advertising campaign, hiring Saatchi & Saatchi to raise awareness of the brand outside of the enterprise.
“You’ll see a lot more us,” promised Van Duijl. “The challenge is how to increase brand awareness and perception and turn that into a buying decision...We’re still relatively unknown [compared to other brands.]”
Executive director for the UK, Ireland & Benelux, Neil Berville, also revealed that the firm is set to make an announcement shortly regarding the launch of Lenovo Financial Services for partners.
Elsewhere, the vendor hosted an awards ceremony as part of the event, where three of the eight awards up for grabs were won by UK partners:  Corporate Reseller of the Year was SCC, Ingram Micro was named Partner of the Year and International Reseller of the Year went to Computacenter.
SCC was awarded the prize in recognition of the company's particularly strong performance in the UK market. The firm was praised for an effective expansion strategy that has witnessed 197 percent growth in the past year.
“In a nutshell, this ably demonstrates that the high volume desktop space sits at the heart of our core services and solutions strategy,” says said Andy Wright, director, vendor alliances at SCC (bottom right). “The whole organisation has worked as a team on this strategy and we're delighted to see all of that hard work and talent honoured in this manner.”