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Wijchen, March 9th 1998 Packard Bell, the consumer division of Packard Bell NEC, the number 1 vendor on the Home PC market, achieved an overall growth in sales of +26% in Western Europe in 1997 and +33% in Q4 of the same year amongst PC retail channels (General Merchandise stores, PC stores and Superstores) according to market analysts, Dataquest. Packard Bell has thus strengthened its market share in this segment from 17.4% in 1996 to 18.8% in 1997. Its immediate rival is Compaq with 7.7 points. This only reinforces Packard Bellís prominent position as undisputed leader According to Dataquest, the PC retail trade accounted for total sales of 3 047 533 units in Western Europe in 1997 of which 573 941 units were Packard Bell PCs. This demonstrates that this particular form of distribution is a privileged and strategic sales channel for home PCs. "Packard Bell was the first PC manufacturer to believe that retail channels were the future of the home PC industry. These impressive results illustrate our real know-how in designing consumer products together with our ability to cater to the particular needs of this specific trade in terms of flexibility and responsiveness" says Pascal Cagni, VP Sales and Marketing for Packard Bell Europe. Furthermore, Packard Bell is the undisputed leader of the PC retail market throughout Europe: Packard Bell is ranked amongst the top 5 PC vendors in 10 European countries. According to Dataquest, 1 in every 5 PCs sold by the retail trade in 1997 was a Packard Bell. This key position is much stronger in some regions where Packard Bellís market share is far more prominent. For example, in the United Kingdom (39.9%) or in France (29.1%) where one in every three PCs sold is a Packard Bell. |
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