UK distributors claim Acer stock levels at historic low

Acer's UK allies claim vendor is moving in the right direction despite $150m stock write-off

UK distributors have noticed improvements in Acer's inventory management despite the vendor's recent EMEA stock write-off.

Acer revealed on Wednesday that it is providing EMEA channels with a one-time sales allowance of $150m (£92m) to help them clear inventory as new broom JT Wang seeks to draw a line under Acer's recent woes.

One UK distribution source, who wished to remain anonymous, said he understood the bulk of the problems related to Acer's continental operations.

"There are no issues in the UK; most of the problems have been in Italy," he said.

"In the UK, Acer's position is no worse than it has been before and from our perspective it is better now than it has been in the past three years," he added.

"Acer is maturing and has to ensure it manages exposure by reducing the amount of weak stock in the channel, but hopefully this will prevail rather than the drive for huge headline growth."

A second distributor, who also commented anonymously, agreed.

"There has been a long-term over-supply on Acer but we are coming under less pressure to take stock," he said.

Acer has declined to comment further and it is not known exactly how much of the $150m set aside to get stock moving relates to the UK. However, the UK figure is understood to have been small enough for local management to cover, without recourse to the Taiwanese HQ.