I'm delighted by today's announcement and confident of the significant benefits that it brings to customers of Commodore, to our employees and, of course, to our new larger company.
I'd like to talk to you about how we are going to distribute Commodore products, and by that I mean both the Commodore Intel Pentium and the Amiga Motorola based computers.
Distribution will be centralised in the Netherlands, where Commodore is based. Commodore products will be distributed in Europe, whereas Amiga will be worldwide distributed. However, we are already in the process of recruiting distributors for the Amiga range, and I'm sure we'll be able to give you more details on this at a later date.
In Europe will be three main channels of distribution.
The first through retail via computer retail chains, brown goods chains, department stores and mail order companies.
The second through a limited number of key distributors, the number will of course depend on the country and type of distributor involved. And thirdly, for Amiga products only, through a range of specialists distributors targeting the vertical markets of high-end Amiga products.
With our distribution in place, what can our customers and our distributors expect from Commodore?
Commodore's success will be based on the three principles: price competitiveness, sales & marketing support and service.
When it comes to price, Commodore will benefit of the purchasing power of the Group. Commodore will offer its retailers and distributors a full range of sales & marketing support. Commodore will implement a Europe-wide training programme for distributors and sales staff, to promote a high level of technical and product knowledge that will equip them to deliver the best advice to customers.
Good after-sales service is equally vital to Commodore's customers. As part of our philosophy to make things as easy as possible for them, we introduce a range of service options. In summary, ladies and gentlemen, we will provide clear channels of distribution for Commodore and with them an unrivalled package of price, support and service. We will make a success of the still strong Commodore and Amiga brands.