MicronPC looks to channel / SMEs for growth

MicronPC, the USA's third biggest direct PC vendor, this week proclaimed that it posted its second profitable quarter in a row. As it's privately held, it hasn't released any sales figures.

Owned until July, 2001 by Micron, the DRAM manufacturer, and now owned by Gores Technology Group, a financial group from LA, the company says it has achieved financial stabilty by "focusing on select segments and providing a superior level of service and support".

The Idaho-based company is gunning for small and medium businesses and government accounts. And it says it has weaned its channel from dependence upon consumer sales to business accounts over the last six months. In percentage terms, this has seen the switch of sales by sector from 80 per cent consumer, to 80 per cent small business. Major resellers include CDQ, Microwarehouse and Comark, the company says.

Mike Adkins, president and CEO of MicronPC, said: "Although the channel represents a small part of our overall revenue mix today, we see significant upside going forward."

It would be interesting to see the sales figures though. MicronPC has by its own account revived, after a period in which it lost money for two years. It is doing this by behaving like no-brand/light brand system builder. Only, it's much bigger than most of its competitors.

This means that it has some of the disadvantages of scale, as well as the advantages. Sharing margin with resellers is something that few white-box PC vendors do. In the US, only Dell of the top 10 PC makers is making a profit. Last time, we looked, MicronPC was 11th or 12th. It may still be 11th or 12th - anyone have the figures? ®