REPUBLIC BANCORP
MORTGAGE INC.
next two years. The model com-
puters lined up on the office's
counter range from a basic PC to
a full-scale multimedia system.
The clean, modern black-and-
white art deco design of the of-
fices is identical to the design of
all the Elonex offices in Europe.
Presenting a professional im-
age and winning confidence was
vital when he was starting out in
Britain, he says, so that his com-
pany would not be perceived "as
a cowboy operation" but as a sol-
id presence that was there to
stay.
Launching a computer corn-
pany in the UK in 1986 was not
a natural business move. The
market for computer sales at the
time was not particularly strong,
but Mr. Wetrin figured this prob-
ably meant he would have less
competition and plenty of room
for growth. And with IBM so
dominant, the ground was ripe
for a challenge. Mr. Wetrin was
ready to take it on.
The 48-year-old businessman
was born in Germany to Lithuan-
ian parents. His family emigrat-
ed to Israel in 1950, and he was
raised in Haifa. He left Israel for
England when he was accepted
as an engineering student at the
University of London. While in
England, he met his wife,
Josephine, the mother of their
two sons, Gideon and Daniel.
The family moved to Israel in
1975 and Mr. Wetrin went to
work for Koor in its export divi-
sion, dealing with the export of
electrical products.
In 1980, Koor sent Mr. Wetrin
to Taiwan to establish offices
there. Two years later, he left
Koor but stayed in Taiwan, set-
ting up his own office as a gener-
al trading stop for overseas
companies. He offered local ser-
vices such as finding sources of
Taiwanese supplies in a variety
of industries such as garments,
textiles, leather goods, machin-
ery and raw materials. In retro-
spect, Mr. Wetrin says that he
dealt with "too many products
and the profits were not fantas-
tic."
He is grateful for his years in
Taiwan, however, for honing his
survival skills. "After existing in
a place like Taiwan, everything
looks easy afterward," he says.
"In the early 1980s it was very
difficult there; they were not used
to foreigners, the expatriate com-
munity was quite small and Eng-
lish was not widely spoken:
things have since changed."
After six years in Taiwan, Is-
rael and Josephine decided that
their children had reached the
age where they needed a better
education than they could receive
in the Far East, and so the fam-
ily headed for England.
Since Mr. Wetrin had strong
ties with Taiwanese manufac-
turers and "it looked like there
was a bright future for comput-
ers," importing personal corn-
puters from Taiwan seemed like
a sensible move.
In the late 1980s, once Mr.
Wetrin had established the
Elonex name and a customer
base, and his technical support
system for customers had proved
itself, he decided it was time for
his company to move into re-
search and development. "Once
we saw that the market was
good, we realized that to contin-
ue to succeed, we had to be quick
all the time with new products
and new directions ... So we de-
cided ... (to) start developing our
own product. Otherwise we
would not stand a chance of con-
tinuing to exist."
The company established its
R&D base in Sunnyvale, Calif.,
where it currently employs 30 en-
gineers. The next step after R&D
was a move into manufacturing
"to remain competitive in cost
and more responsive to cus-
tomers," Mr. Wetrin says. Two
years ago, the company estab-
lished its surface mount technol-
ogy (SMT) factory in Scotland,
which turns out personal corn-
puters and PC circuit boards. It
also maintains a special configu-
ration line which manufactures
computers to order to suit cus-
tomers' special needs.
Mr. Wetrin attributes his com-
pany's success to the advantages
of the direct-sales method. "In di-
rect sales, you are involved di-
rectly with your end-user, so you
get much better feedback from
the market. You also have a lot
of savings. With no dealer chan-
nel, our selling costs are only 9
percent — so we are able to work
on a 15 percent gross margin and
still give a very good price to end-
users because we don't have any
people between us and them. We
are giving very good value for
money."
But the key to maintaining a
direct-sales line that maintains
a reputation long term is its lev-
el of technical support. Buying a
computer for less does a customer
no good if he has nowhere to turn
if something goes wrong. Elonex
offers customers technical sup-
port both on-line and by tele-
phone. In Tel Aviv, the company
was careful to establish its tech-
nical support team before it be-
gan selling equipment. The
manager of the Elonex office,
Yehuda Yaniv, is an old friend of
Mr. Wetrin's, an electrical engi-
neer who worked with him at
Koor in the 1970s and later head-
ed up Elbit's European opera-
tions.
Though he has succeeded
handsomely in Europe, Elonex is
virtually unknown in the United
States. Mr. Wetrin says he would
like to move into the United
States in the next few years —
once he gets backing. El
Allison Kaplan Sommer writes for
the Jerusalem Post.
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