‘Sourcing’ important
The process of buying computer equipment from some Eastern sources Is full of perils for the uninformed novice buyer, Mr Bob Radley of White Knight Capital warns.
“We found very early on that it was a wise move to go to Singapore and run checks on the sourcing of the computer lines we were interested in,” Mr Radley said.
He found that some apparently substantial manufacturing units were virtual “one man bands” operating from single offices.
The company White Knight have forged their active trading links with 1.P.C., (Essex Electric), a company owned by a family of Singaporean Chinese educated in England at Essex.
This company, Mr Radley found, did have the substance to back up their company title. “They do their own product development and are making some equipment under licence from companies such as Hewlett Packard.
“They also make the circuit boards put into Singer Sewing machines.”
Essex supply computer ware to a total of 31 countries with their biggest markets developed in countries such as Russia, China and Cuba where highly sophisticated American equipment may not be sold. “With their thirty outlets they can spread their prices and are giving us extremely favourable prices here at present,” Mr Radley said.
The fact that the company carries out torture tests on componentry and sends out units with assembly numbers at-
tached has also impressed the discerning New Zealand consumer. “Since 1985 we have built up to an annualised sales figure of about $3 million,” Mr Radley said. The arrival of Singapore Airlines flights into New Zealand has made it possible for the company
to fly their computers directly in from Singapore.
Flight has been found preferable to shipping by sea where tropical conditions have sometimes affected computers unfavourably, Mr Radley observed. “You have to trade in
computers for quite a while before you establish company and product credibility,” Mr Radley said. “We passed that point about twelve months ago and in part it was a result of taking the time to source our suppliers in Singapore.”
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Press, 22 September 1987, Page 29
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340‘Sourcing’ important Press, 22 September 1987, Page 29
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