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Interview : Tony Riccardi, General Manager - MESH

by David Ross on 16 November 2003, 00:00

Tags: MESH Computers

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UK PC Industry: The Inside Track



Today we have an exclusive interview with Tony Riccardi, General Manager of one of the UK’s largest and most successful PC Manufacturers, MESH Computers Plc.

HEXUS: Anyone who knows the PC market will have heard of MESH, but what is the company really about ?

RICCARDI: MESH was established way back in 1987. The company has grown steadily since, and our current turnover is around $100M.

HEXUS: Every time you open a computer magazine, there seems to be a MESH system inside, how important are reviews for MESH ?

RICCARDI: Very important. The British PC-buying public are knowledgeable. They know what they want. In addition to understanding which features are important, they also have an excellent feel for a good deal. Comparative reviews give manufacturers like MESH a chance to test themselves against the best that the market has to offer.

HEXUS: MESH have won a lot of awards. What are the implications ?

RICCARDI: Consumers enjoy reading reports from journalists that (a) have an in-depth understanding of the subject and (b) whom they trust to give open and honest views no matter the consequence. Winning a single review means that – on the day - we had the best understanding of the needs of a particular audience. To win more reviews than anyone else takes something very special.

HEXUS: How competitive is the UK PC market ?

RICCARDI: Very ! You would have to run a manufacturing company like MESH before you could truly appreciate how much competition there is. On the one hand, we are successfully competing, head-to-head, with some of the largest, multi-national corporations on the planet. They have huge marketing funds and tens of thousands of employees worldwide. At the other end of the scale, there are always small, new companies emerging who will focus closely on small sections of the market.

HEXUS: So what is the answer ?

RICCARDI: The secret to our success is that MESH have maintained a solid middle-ground between these two factions. We are large enough to offer better support, pricing and facilities than the smaller companies and – at the same time – we are small enough to read the UK market better than the global Japanese and American companies.

HEXUS: Do MESH really get every new piece of kit first ?

RICCARDI: Generally, yes. We have strategic partnerships with all of the major players like AMD, Intel, ATI and nVidia. That fact that we tend to win more reviews than anyone else, means that MESH systems are an attractive vehicle to market. Our Research and Development team work closely with our partner’s experts so that new technology is integrated as early as possible. Once we have finished our internal testing, the results are passed to the production team who will ensure that we can produce ample volume of the new product once the review comes out.

HEXUS: Last question, how significant do you believe 64-bit technology will be to the desktop PC in 2004 ?

RICCARDI: Absolutely crucial. On existing applications, Athlon 64-bit processors ease past their 32-bit siblings. Once applications are re-compiled to a 64-bit code base the differences will be staggering in a lot of cases. The CPU will cease to be any kind of bottleneck and the focus will switch to the motherboard chipsets – especially with the advent of the latest PCI-Express technology.

HEXUS: Thanks for that Tony. If our readers want to find out more about MESH then they should visit the WEB site at www.meshcomputers.com.. If you have any more questions for MESH then please hit the forums over here where we will make sure Tony spends some time answering your questions.



HEXUS Forums :: 23 Comments

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We wrote a recorded letter (so we know you got it) to the managing director of MESH computers when we got our machine from you. The name doesnt ring a bell though. And we didnt get a reply. Shame really. I would tell you the whole story but that would take pages, and Im sure this will be edited out my mods anyway. But my question is:

Computing is a very competitive business (as I'm sure you know), so this means you have to try and be one step ahead of the competition. What has your company done in the last year to improve customer services and relations?

EDITed by me
Are MESH considering departing from the standard price-war system currently in place with most PC OEMs, and instead looking into a more “luxury” line of PCs, perhaps with more attention paid to design, like the PCs made by Alienware and Voodoo, but without the prohibitive price tag?
Will Mesh be branching out into other areas, such as MP3 players and handheld pcs?
It will not always be possible for me to reply in person on this forum - but I do thank you all for taking the time to write in with your questions

Twigman: Please e-mail your query (including your order number and daytime contact details) to meshresponse@meshcomputers.com and I will ensure that it gets top priority
In the most recent independent survey of service and support (VNU Image Track Research 2003), MESH managed to come out ahead of HP, Packard-Bell, Sony, Time and Medion… not bad going for a British manufacturer against a string of multinationals !

Caged: You can already order this kind of system from MESH - with our standard warranty - but building it up yourself on our WEB site using the MESH Essential range as the starting point. Alternatively, call our sales team and discuss a special build with them in person

Headbrace: MESH already do MP3 Players. We launched ours around a year ago. It doubles as a pen drive and it really tiny. Give our sales team a call for up to date info on memory sizes and pricing !


Once again, thanks for your questions

I will check back and see if any more of you need a response in the next week or so

If you are a MESH customer with an urgent query, please e-mail it to meshresponse@meshcomputers.com and we will deal with it straight away

Kind regards,

Tony Riccardi
General Manager
MESH Computers Plc
My problem was quite a while ago, I have given up with it now. But thanks anyway.

Another slightly more flipant question (if you've got time, or are bored at the office):

If you could expand to any other country which would it be? (and here's the catch: It *has* to be in South America) and why?