B4 - Wednesday, August 1, 1984 - North Shore News

El business a ESN cE

DEPENDING ON franchise sales, the president of Compu Software says he expects the company to break even by May, 1985 — only two years after opening its first retail outlet — despite sug- gestions the software industry may be in for

rough times.

Bud Eaton says he predicts Canada’s first retail software chain, will recover its entire investment within two to three years.

‘*You’re talking about $2 million. I'd have to build 15 or 20 stores,’” he says.

Compu Software officially began operations in March, 1983. It was created by Eaton and his brothers-in- law, Joseph and Vincent Micallef, who managed to raise up to $750,000 worth of financing between their families and close associates.

The company, which now has five Vancouver-area directors, has recently gone public with 300,000 public shares — each share is worth $1.15. And, according to Eaton, ‘‘a private placement is coming up for a $1! mil- lion. It’s overseas but we don’t know who we’re going to do it with yet.””

The company has aimed its products at the business community, with most of the inventory coming from the United States. Eaton says the reason for carrying U.S. products is because the ma- jority of good software writers are either based in, or move to the U.S. in order to get better promotion for their efforts.

‘“*That’s what makes or breaks a product these days,’’ he says.

He adds Compu Software tends to market more U-S. software products simply because the software field south of the border is fur- ther advanced.

Products offered in the store include business and entertainment § software, magazines, books, and ac- cessonies. Compu Software also conducts classes on the use of computers.

“*We can pretty well offer to any businessman a pro duct to hetp him increase has productiviy You name it, we can do it Whether ts a

word) processor, ai spread sheet or just a filing system,"' says katon **The whole idea behind Compu

Software is that without us, your computer is) just a machine *’

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Eaton says although there are several retail outlets now seling software products, that they are basically ‘“‘Mom and Pop’’ shops which are ‘‘basically indi- vidual proprietors who saw the wealth to be made perhaps in this industry and decided to take a crack at it. The problems with that are they are either under- capitalized, they can’t buy in the volume discounts that we can, and they can’t advertise like we can.”’

He adds the company plans to have nine stores opened throughout Canada by the end of 1984, including one at Oakridge Shopping Centre and another in Co- quitlam. As for the com- pany’s North Vancouver Store, Eaton says the reasons for selecting the location were simple: it is in a high income area, there is a high demand for the product, and the Marine Drive location puts the store in a prime high growth area.

Eaton is confident the retail software industry will not be affected by what in- dustry insiders are predicting will soon be a downturn in the software manufacturing and writing sector.

‘*There’s an analogy to be drawn from the record in- dustry and the stereo in- dustry .’’ says Eaton. ‘‘If you spend $5,000 today to buy a better computer. you're for sure in the next three years going to spend

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