After entering the Canadian market last year, BenQ is starting off this year with an extended distribution partnership, new products that were unveiled at CES, and an aggressive outlook for growth.
“2004 was an astronomical year for us and in 2005 we hope to double our business,” said Jimmy
Davlouros, vice-president and general manager of BenQ Canada. “We are anticipating that we will be introducing $300 million worth of business this year.”
Davlouros said that its close to 2,000 authorized resellers will be at the root of that projected success, along with its distribution partners.
Bellmicroproducts has been offering BenQ’s optical products last year, but as of this month that relationship has expanded.
“They are one of our biggest distributors of our storage products and now they will be offering our LCD displays to expand the breadth of technologies that they are distributing as a whole,” Davlouros said. “We are going to use them to approach more and more focused system integrators.”
Peter Diniz, vice-president and general manager of Bell Microproducts Canada, said BenQ will be able to tap into net new channel opportunities, such as its strong base of corporate VARs, and relationships with direct marketer partners such as Insight and CDW.
Diniz said the deal was a natural progression to broaden its LCD offering that saw NEC as its major display manufacturer partner last year.
“We have found BenQ to be a very aggressive but a dynamic and flexible manufacturer, and we have done very well with their optical products,” Diniz said.
The distributor currently has inventory and will carry BenQ’s full line of current and future LCD displays. According to Diniz, they have launched aggressive promotions, bundle offerings and contests for its internal sales staff and reseller customers to kick-start the sales cycle.
In February, Canada will see some of the latest LCD models that were unveiled during the 2005 Consumer Electronics Show held in Las Vegas earlier this month.
“LCD trends that we will be introducing to the Canadian marketplace this year are widescreens, higher contrast ratios, indestructible screens, and a height adjustable chassis,” Davlouros said.
This year a focus will be on offering more widescreen displays for business users which are becoming more popular as more widescreen notebooks and televisions hit the market.
Available near the end of Q1 will be the 71W, a 17-inch widescreen display selling for $499 and the 201W, a 20-inch version for $899.
“Once the price point barrier breaks even more, which BenQ intends to do, I think most certainly will you find a much larger demand from businesses for the wider screens,” Davlouros said. “So we are going to grab that bull by the horns.”
Also during CES, the company’s new Senseye technology was launched which will start showing up on a line of new 19-inch LCD displays later this quarter. The digital enhancement technology automatically and dynamically improves image quality, performs colour-mapping procedures, and reduces jagged edges on images.
“It will also adjust to the dimness of the room,” he said. “If you have the lights on full blast in a room the brightness will atomically reduce itself so you can have the optimum viewing. If the lights are low, it will adjust itself to a higher brightness.”