New strategy and new EMEA VP for Acer

Acer has appointed a new vice president for EMEA. Gleb Mishin, who currently has responsibility for Eastern Europe and CIS, will become vice president, emerging markets EMEA Acer.

The company has also appointed a new manager for the Middle East and Africa region, who will be officially announced last week.

Mishin also revealed that the company is to change several strategies, which reflect a new unified management board of the company, following the departure of Gianfranco Lanci, the ex-CEO.

The company has now formed two groups, one to focus on the traditional lines including PCs, notebooks, projectors and monitors, and the second group that will deal with the ‘touch' products including tablets and smartphones.

Acer will also reduce its multi-brand strategy, and place more emphasis on the Acer brand. Packard Bell and Gateway will continue as strategic brands, Mishin said, but products will mainly be produced to meet specific needs in some countries.

Mishin confirmed that eMachines brand, acquired by Acer as part of Gateway in 2007, will be shelved, and no more products are being produced under this name.

Acer will also shift its sales strategy from chasing market share and selling into the channel, to focus on sell out, to avoid overstuffing of its channel. The company was forced to write off $150m through overstocking earlier in the year. Mishin said that almost all of the overstock has been cleared, and that Acer would now improve demand generation and marketing, and turn to the channel for fulfillment.

In the competitive landscape, Mishin was confident that Acer can beat off renewed competition from the likes of Samsung and Lenovo, due to its faster time to market with new products. At GITEX, Acer was showing its new S3 Ultrabook, one of the first models in the new category available.