Even though the personal computer (PC) industry in India is unlikely to grow in higher double digits in the current calendar year, global PC major Acer is expecting a growth of nearly 25% as it makes significant push into different categories like consumer retail, government and education. Acer India managing director Harish Kohli, in an interview with PP Thimmaya, says that for the first half of 2012, the company has already exceeded its internal targets and expects this momentum to continue for rest of the year. Excerpts:

How is the Indian PC market faring for Acer?

The PC industry is likely to grow between 10% and 11%, but Acer is eyeing over 20% growth. We have completed first half of 2012 and are absolutely on track in terms of exceeding our internal targets. We are buoyant and could have grown faster had the enterprise sales been higher. In the consumer business, our focus has been expanding the geographical reach. In India, there are 4,385 towns with population of over one lakh, we need to reach out to them with our products and services. We have so far covered 1,200 towns with the channel partner system in place. In the metros, we are partnering equally well with the large format retail stores and independent outlets. The education segment has been one our main verticals and we are one of the largest player working practically with all the system integrators. We do one large project every quarter.

The area which has taken a beating is private corporates. Even though this has never been a forte of Acer, we have certain long-term engagements in the insurance sector. The government projects have been fairly large for us scoring high market share, though I must say the gestation period for implementing various projects is fairly long. There has been some lull in this segment primarily due to some pricing issues, but we expect all the pent up demand to come back strongly.

What are the growth targets for Acer in 2012?

We grew by 25% in 2011 and are confident of clocking between 20% and 25% growth in 2012. Our confidence is based on two points. In the desktop category, the share of the white goods manufacturer is shrinking and Acer is eating into that segment. Secondly, there are some large orders we are executing. Today, I would say the market share gap among the top four to five players is very thin and any large order can alter the standings. However, I would say that there is a qualified funnel of orders before us.

Will Acer participate in the planned PC buying orders of various state governments?

The first project by any state government in giving free PCs to meritorious students was by the Goa government and we were a partner there. It was later followed up by Assam. In both these orders, we are supplying 60-65% of the overall requirement. We have a good insight about what goes on and knowhow to go about it. In the case of Tamil Nadu government, we got 25% share. We will be more than happy to participate in the proposed PC buying plans by Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Punjab.

What are your plans for selling products online?

We are going ahead to sign up deal with a couple of e-commerce players. We have formed a separate vertical for this line of business and should be operational in the next two to three months. Though we have taken longer time to enter into this segment, we wanted to learn from the experience of others. Our challenge was by entering this segment, it should not affect the business prospects of our other partners like large format retail stores or the independent outlets. We want everybody to co-exist.