Amstrad UK has come out with all guns blazing in an attempt to recover from the difficulties it experienced last year, the company revealed on the eve of announcing its year-end figures today. The UK company has a new management team, and launched a dealer support programme called the Merit Initiative. The company is also about to spend UKP7m on a nationwide advertising campaign. The core of the Merit Initiative is an on-site warranty with every piece of Amstrad hardware sold after April 2. The warranty is provided either through Amstrad or by authorised dealers. Dealers will build up points by sales and the provision of on-site maintenance, and these points can be exchanged for service options. Options include assistance with advertising, training, promotional literature, database marketing, and ancillary marketing services. Amstrad anticipates that that the greatest demand will be for advertising assistance. In exchange for points, it will pay up to 50% of the costs of dealers’ local advertising campaigns, and supply participants with versions of Amstrad’s national advertisements. The cost of Merit Initiative is put at UKP2m between April and June alone, and Amstrad says that cannot be met by current margins. Consequently, it is raising prices on several products including the PC1640, the PCW8256, PCW8512, and 14CD monitors. They will increase by UKP50, UKP30, and UKP50 respectively, but the company stresses that dealer margins will generally be maintained.
