Acer Group Inc duly opened its personal computer assembly plant in Lappeenranta, Finland last month. The facility has the capacity to assemble 8,000 personal computers a month and is located 16 miles from the Russian border. The plant will initially be producing Acer’s 80486- and Pentium-based personal computers but later will switch to producing Pentium Pro systems and Acer’s flagship home personal computer model, the Aspire. According to Acer CIS general manager Stephen Kuzara, the plant will make Acer machines the best value proposition on the Russian market: Logistics and fresh pricing is the name of the game. No other (foreign) computer manufacturer in this market can turn an order into a delivery in 10 to 12 days: from telephone call to factory to the customer. When you pay more for another computer you are paying for their ware-housing costs, their transport costs and the price changes in the cost of microprocessors, hard disk drives and memory chips.
