August 30, 04

BenQ Corp. one of Taiwan's leading manufacturers of information technology products, is also the driving force in Taiwan on the way to divert from OEM/ODM manufacturing to own-brand products with a distinct corporate identity. During a recent press meeting for Taiwan-based correspondents of foreign media. Estimated its own-brand products to account for 30% up to 40% of total revenue this year. The company also expects the ratio to challenge the 50% threshold in 2008.

K.C. Lee, chairman of BenQ, noted his company would see sales of branded products double to the equivalent of 2,38 billion US$ this year.

Thanks to its efforts to promote sales of branded products over the past several years, BenQ will see its combined sales amount to more than US$5,35 billion this year.

At a recent shareholders meeting, Lee stressed the importance of branded products to sustain growth and profit margins. He said his company has set up 27 branches worldwide, including the newly inaugurated two branches in South Korea and France. He noted the establishment of the branch in South Korea presented a significant meaning because the distribution channels in that nation have almost been controlled by such big names as Samsung Electronics and LG Group.

Sheaffer Lee, president of the firm, said it had 15,000 staff worldwide, with 2,000 people based in Taiwan. The company traces its successful overseas operation by developing management talents from the respective countries and let them operate independently, a drastic diversion from the old Chinese habit ( and the reason for failure of so many other companies ) of wanting to have everything under family control.

BenQ was sponsoring the Euro 2004 soccer turnament in Portugal earlier this year, because of the large market it enjoys there and as a part of its branding exercise.

Last week, BenQ announced the launch of an LCD monitor with an ultra-fast response time of 8ms, which it claims to be the world's first, while in June it made headlines by debuting the largest LCD TV on the world market at 56 inches screen diagonale.