By Craig Zammit

SYDNEY: EC-Asia International Limited has announced it will be entering the Australian flash memory market from July 2006, with ACEplus branded products, as part of an intensive 12 month marketing campaign designed to assist in pushing the brand into the global market.

“We already have a very large distribution network in China, but we want to push ACEplus as a global brand, and if we are serious about this we cannot ignore a market like Australia,” EC-Asia International sales and marketing director, Ang Ah Sin told current.com.au.

EC-Asia International CEO and managing director, Kelvin Ang, is convinced the brand can succeed in the Australian market.

"We are confident of meeting the needs of consumers in Australia given our strong design and manufacturing capabilities. The range of memory products on offer will be comprehensive and value-for-money without compromising on quality.”

EC-Asia was publicly listed on the Australian Stock Exchange in 2004 (ASX: ECI), and has grown from being a distributor/wholesaler of premium computer components and peripherals to a leading manufacturer of DRAM and flash memory products.

Encouraged by the recent growth in demand for memory products such as digital cameras, mp3 players, mobile phones and flash drives, EC-Asia will attempt to educate consumers on selecting the right memory product to suit their needs.

“We want to educate consumers as to why they should consider buying low capacity as well as high capacity memory storage devices.

“Most people want to buy high capacity memory only, simply because it is available. Why should consumers buy lower capacities for digital cameras? Well some flash memory has better life cycles than other flash memory, and generally, consumers are unaware of this type of thing,” said Ah Sin.

“What we want to do is inform these consumers on why they should purchase to suit their needs and understand the differences and advantages between products.”

Ah Sin also claims that flash memory sales shouldn’t simply be based on storage capacity alone.

“There are many ways to sell flash memory apart from storage capacities. We want creative retailers that are looking for an alternative that is different from the normal memory product. Retailers who are willing to educate, not just sell.”

He also alluded to the potential of crossing into other areas of flash products such as mp3 players and the like.

“We are currently looking into products which are related to flash memory and are exploring whether we should have stand-alone mp3 players or products with built-in mp3 and other such functionality.”

EC-Asia will be distributed in Australia through its authorised distributor AsiaPac Distribution, and are actively pursuing distributors with an open distribution policy.