Quantex targets corporate PC big guns

Quantex, the fourth largest direct vendor in the US, sneaked into the UK in June to set up its direct sales operation and officially opened its phone lines on August 1. The company has yet to release any projected sales figures but UK general manager Alan Gower said he has been surprised by the initial interest.

"We are pitching our marketing directly at the likes of Dell and Gateway," he said. "We have had a good response considering it is summer and we have had to increase the number of sales lines. The early indications are that we can take some share from Dell and Gateway."

Quantex is currently advertising in a number of UK PC magazines and pricing is just undercutting its rivals, although Gower argued that Quantex is better value because it offers additional in-built modem and Pipex Dial Internet package pre-installed. He added that "unlike other US-based firms, we are selling for the same price in the UK as in the US and that means we are not trying to make extra profit from the UK market."