Italian ICT Market Q1 2007 - Information Technology Italy

Italian ICT Market Q1 2007 - Information Technology Italy.

The Market Data for Q1 2007 have been published by Sirmi Spa the leading Italian Market Reasearch Company focused to ICT trade channels: IT market growing by 4% compared to Q1 2006, TLC stable, Consumer Electronics growing by 8%.

To see more details click here: Italian ICT Market Q1 2007 or send an email to info@trendeurope.com.

Nino Patane’ launches Buffalo Technology in Italy. Agreement signed with Esprinet.

Nino Patané launches Buffalo Technology in Italy. Agreement signed with Esprinet.

After six months from the startup of the operations in Italy, 650+ Italian resellers have already traded Buffalo’s products. On 6th June 2007 the Japanese Company Buffalo Technology (www.buffalotech.com) has signed a distribution agreement with the leading Italian distributor Esprinet SpA (www.esprinet.com). 

Esprinet (Italian Stock Exchange: PRT) is a major European player

in the wholesale distribution of IT and consumer electronics. Esprinet is the number one distribution company in Italy and Spain (40.000 resellers served, 500+ brands).
With a consolidated sales of €2.22 billion in 2006, using its unique internet-based business model, Esprinet is mainly addressing the small-medium-enterprises market (SME).Esprinet sales rank as the distribution company No.1 in Italy and Spain, the No. 4 in Europe and No. 9 worldwide.

According to the Strategic plan 2007-2009 the Key Strategic Goals of Esprinet are:

• In the next decade aim at becoming the European leader in Technology Distribution via both reinforcing the leadership in South Europe and entering at least one other Western European Market within the next three year

• Financial Targets for the next three years:
  • Consolidated sales growing up to:
  • € 2.62-2.71 billion in 2007
  • € 2.87-3.00 billion in 2008
  • € 3.10-3.24 billion in 2009
  • CAGR ’07-09: +9%
• EBIT expected in a range of
  • € 89-97 million in 2007 (3.5% on sales)
  • 102-111 million in 2008 (3.6% on sales)
  • € 113-123 million in 2009 (3.7% on sales)
  • CAGR ’07-09: +13%
• Net profit estimated up to
  • € 47-52 million in 2007
  • 58-64 million in 2008
  • € 68-75 million in 2009
  • CAGR ’07-09: +20%
• 3-year cumulated net cash flow2 in excess of € ~220 million - Esprinet considers compatible with the expected available financial resources cquisitions up to € 2.0 - 2.5 billion of sales in Western Europe with no need of a share capital increase

Buffalo Technology is a global manufacturer of innovative wireless networking, storage and multimedia solutions for the home and small business environments. The company is recognised as the Number 1 total PC peripheral manufacturer in Japan, and was the worldwide consumer NAS market leader in 2005 and 2006 (In-Stat).

For more information write to: info@trendeurope.com

PRESS RELEASE

Buffalo Technology Signs Distribution Contract with Esprinet S.p.A.
06/06/2007

Milan, 6th June - Buffalo Technology, leading global provider of innovative wireless networking, storage, multimedia and memory solutions, and Esprinet S.p.A., leading distributor of consumer IT products in Italy and Spain, announce today their commercial partnership aimed at the immediate distribution of the whole product portfolio of Buffalo Technology in Italy.

“Buffalo’s worldwide leadership is already consolidated (being the rising star of worldwide Distribution, wireless technology leader and Number One of the consumer Network Attached Storage (NAS) market), but the company’s activities in Italy started just recently. The great results achieved in the first 6 months of activity with our partners (650+ resellers) allow us to share an optimistic view about the development of our presence in this market” said Nino Patané, responsible for Italian Market Development for Buffalo Technology. “Esprinet S.p.A. fills a key position for the development of Buffalo’s channel in Italy: this distribution contract will boost our presence in this market to a new dimension.”. Buffalo Technology put their trust in Esprinet for their excellent logistics, the efficient IT infrastructure and their outstanding capability to address and support the channel through a winning mix of a highly appreciated online platform and a wide portfolio of reseller services.

“We are very proud that Buffalo selected Esprinet to support them in this strong expansion phase of their brand on the Italian market. Our interest towards Buffalo arises from the requests of our customers, asking for new, not devalued, high quality solutions with competitive pricing. Our partnership with Buffalo Technology allows us to strengthen our offer, targeting both the SME and the digital living application markets” comments Matteo Restelli, Country Manager Esprinet Italy.

Buffalo’s product portfolio includes its award-winning AirStation™ line of easy-to-use, high-performance wireless networking products for SME/SoHo and home users. With industry leading AOSS™ (AirStation One-Touch Secure System™) technology, users can simply build a secure wireless network at home or in the office at the push of a button.

The Award wining line of Storage solutions include the Network Attached Storage (NAS) - TeraStation for SME/SOHO and LnkStation for Home users ; external storage offer DriveStation for desktop solution and MiniStastion for portable solution. Also for the digital home environment, Buffalo offer LinkTheater a multimedia player.
Products on the Buffalo line can combine to offer a unique integrated WLAN, Storage and multimedia solution.
About Buffalo TechnologyBuffalo is a global manufacturer of innovative wireless networking, storage and multimedia solutions for the home and small business environments. The company is recognised as the Number 1 total PC peripheral manufacturer in Japan, and was the worldwide consumer NAS market leader in 2005 and 2006 (In-Stat).

Buffalo’s product portfolio includes its award-winning AirStation™ line of easy-to-use, high-performance wireless networking products for SME/SoHo and home users. With industry-leading AOSS™ (AirStation One-Touch Secure System) technology, users can simply build a secure wireless network at home or in the office at the push of a button.

The company’s storage solutions are addressing the needs of both the individual and the business, providing a versatile line of USB flash drives, portable and desktop hard drives and cost-effective network attached storage (NAS) solutions. Including its multimedia players, Buffalo is unique in offering integrated WLAN, storage and multimedia solutions for the digital home environment.

Buffalo’s strong international industry alliances with companies such as Intel, Broadcom™, Nintendo and Microsoft have allowed it to lead the industry in the development of the latest technologies into practical tools for the business and the home.

Italian ICT Market Q4 and Full Year 2006 - Information Technology Italy

Italian ICT Market Q4 and Full Year 2006 - Information Technology Italy

In February 2006 the Market Data for Q4 2006 have been published. To see more details click here: Italy ICT Market 2006 Full Year (pdf, 294K) (suource Sirmi) or send an email to info@trendeurope.com

2007 International CES - Consumer Electronics Show- January 8-11 Las Vegas

CES stand for “Consumer Electronic Show“: the World’s largest technology trade show being hold every year, in January, in Las Vegas (USA). The first edition of the CES Exhibition was held in New York in 1967. This year CES was celebrating its 40th anniversary. Other tradeshows that are important for consumer electronics market are: CEBIT (Hannover, Germany), COMPUTEX (Taipei, Taiwan), IFA (Berlin, Germany) and SIMO TCI (Madrid, Spain). The 2007 edition of CES exceeded the expectations: 1.8 million net square feet of space, more than 140,000 attendees from all around the world, 2700 exhibitors. The most successful technology - in terms of visitor’s attention - were the followings: IPTV, Home Servers, HSDPA / EV-DO, Location-based servers and GPS, Blu-ray Disc / HD-DVD, Follow-me TV, Full HD, HDMI, Slingbox, Wimax. Also the last development on Audio, Digital Entertainment, Digital Imaging, Home Networking, Home Theater, Mobile Electronics, Wireless and Emerging Technologies.

Ecommerce in Italy B2C - Status mid year 2006

Ecommerce in Italy B2c (IT, PC, Consumer Electronics) - Status mid year 2006 online sales - IT and consumer electronics online sales B2c, which in 2005 accounted for approximately 310 millions €, would close in 2006 with a growth of 40% a little more of 430 Millions Euro, being in Italy at the second position (in online sales revenue) after the Tourism, that is the leading component of the eCommerce B2C in Italy: almost 11% of the whole market is represented by B2c IT and CE.

The penetration rate, compared to the total retail sales, is equivalent to 3% and offers considerable opportunity of growth especially if comparing with international levels. In 2006 almost 2,5 million of online orders will be executed by ecommerce websites for IT and CE products. The average “cash slip” (average sales value per order) will be slightly higher of 180€, a drop of 15% compared to 2005 also due to the rise of the “E-bay computer shops”, which average sales is much lower to other online sales companies and due to the rise, in sales, of consumables and accessories.

In 2006 the major part of the market stays concentrated on the hands of the “dot com pure players” companies, running the business according to the “virtual reseller” model and of the few operators of the major retail distribution who invested in online channel.

During 2005 “Monclick” entered the market as the first operator “pure player” but not “dot com”, having the support of the leader of IT and CE distribution in Italy (the distributor Esprinet who owns Monclick at 100%).

In the “virtual resellers” category, the dominant companies, have an aggreagetd market share that is the lowest between all principal sectors of the online sales in general (when considering the market share of the major players). The online sales business is NOT concentred yet. For the major virtual resellers, is more and more difficult to keep a sufficient margin. Only the few initiatives with a dominant market position, e.g. MrPrice and ePrice are able to reach a volume which allows them to have, even if low, a contractual power in front of the suppliers (vendors and distributors).

There are at least three the development directions on facing this phenomenon:

• don’t rely completely on a pure reseller virtual model but try, as much as possible to operate following a mixed logic, accepting to not purchase only after the order has been taken from the final customer, but taking purchasing opportunities with interesting margin;
• extending the range to the product categories not strictly linked to IT, PC and consumer electronic, e.g. the sport and spare time products, bricolage, health, beauty, jewellery, which could grant margin profit definitely higher;
• more focus on “margins generators” cross & up selling (like foreign companies - e.g Pixmania - which are more advanced in this area does.

Major retail organization, even if they can count on better deals and margins, are still struggling to get success in the online sales with the exception of MediaWolrd (Mediamarket) that is already well established.

Until now the competition in online sales has been mainly on price. As consequence the role of “comparators” website (Kelkoo, Trovaprezzi, Costameno, etc.) has been critical to get orders but also further compressing the margins. The competition and success in the coming years will be driven instead by the overall service provided to the customers. And a lot of effort is being placed in this direction by the major players.

Italy ecommerce major players: click here to read the document “ecommerce_Italy.pdf (1 page in english - pdf, 7 KB)”

For more information on Italian and European markets write an email to TrendEurope (European IT Sales and Marketing Agency) info@trendeurope.com and see www.trendeurope.com

Source: Osservatorio B2c Politecnico di Milano Click here to download the full doc (51 pages in Italian - pdf, 2 MB)

Italian PC Market Q3 2006 - Information Technology Italy

Italian PC Market Q3 2006. At the end of October 2006 the quarterly figures regarding the PC Market in Italy have been released. The Italian PC  market continues to see a two digit growth. In units the growth accounts for +12.2% compared to the same quarter of 2005; in value the growth  is +6.1%. Major growth for notebooks: of which 25% overall, 28.4% consumer and 21.7% business configurations. Outlook for full year 2006 - expected number of PC shipped in 2006: 4.7 million (+12.5% vs 2005).

Source: Sirmi