Escom AG opens 100 high street retail computer outlets today in the UK, with a further 100 by the year-end, which by then will have created around 1,000 new jobs. The stores are the old Rumbelows shops it bought from Thorn EMI Plc in March (CI No 2,616). Escom aims to provide what it claims is the missing link between personal computer manufacturers and the customers. The shops will stock Escom-badged machines, mostly manufactured by Siemens Nixdorf Informationssyteme AG and all bundled with IBM Corp’s OS/2 Warp. Escom is spending ú6m on an aggressive advertising campaign on television and in the press. Escom already has 27 stores in the UK and has begun to introduce concessions in Office World out-of-town stores, which will number 50 by the year-end. Escom is backed in its efforts by Intel Corp – all the computers are Pentiums, IBM Corp and Hewlett-Packard Co, which aims to increase its small office-home office market share through the stores. Chief executive Manfred Schmitt, who started Escom from a musical instruments shop in Frankfurt just eight years ago, said that the company was not coming to the UK to make a revolution, somewhat against the extravagant tone of the announcement, but was seeking organic growth in a retail personal computer market that it reckons has enormous scope for growth. The company would not make any firm predictions, but revealed that the existing UK shops are profitable, and it expects margins 2% to 3% higher in the UK than in Germany.
