Can stores like Micro Anvika survive 2012?

If you read KitGuru and you have lived anywhere near a big city over the past 30 years, then there is a good chance that you will have been drawn into a Micro Anvika store. Until the Apple shops launched, Micro Anvika was just about the best looking set of dedicated tech retail stores in the country.

KitGuru takes a deep breath, closes its eyes and tries to interpret the sounds from the high street.

If an online reseller dropped from revenues of around £50 million to around £30 million, would it make much of a difference?

Sure, if there was huge warehousing, then it might. But there would be a core of personnel needed to run the operation, which could be fixed (and their jobs secured), while a ‘float' of workers around the warehouse, customer services and sales could be increased or decreased according to the time of year.

Major resellers like eBuyer, Scan, Dabs and Overclockers are all located far, far away from major city centres like London, where the rents are prohibitive.

The only reason to pay huge inner-city rents, is if you have great sales figures and solid margins. John Lewis is one of the only success stories in this area. Despite owning a chain of flagship stores in the centre of every big city, and being price competitive, they have still managed to increase sales and maintain profitability. Impressive.

So that brings us back to the smaller independents, like Micro Anvika. What kind of drop in revenue can they sustain?

Each store looks amazing. They are positioned in the biggest high streets (for example, multiple stores in London's Tottenham Court Road) and they have plenty of trained staff on hand to help customers choose high value goods. With an emphasis on Apple.

But now the Apple faithful have their own stores. Built to an even higher standard, and Micro Anvika can't claim to be significantly cheaper than the Jobs corporation.

If a company like that were to suffer a solid drop in revenues, then it would be very hard to evolve by restructuring – and Darwin has taught us all that adaptability is the key to success in a dangerous environment.

KitGuru says: While we wish the guys at Micro Anvika luck, the company's future is likely to be determined by the harsh, external economic situation. With Apple customers gravitating toward the mothership and expensive leases to carry in the heart of each major city, being price competitive is going to hurt. Fingers crossed the company can trade past these challenges. We really love these stores.

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