Taiwan's Acer Inc, the world's No.2 PC brand, aims to grow in Germany this year and is off to a good start with first-quarter sales above the 2009 period, the head of its German unit told Reuters.

Revenues and unit sales are above last year's level (in the first quarter) so far, Stefan Engel said in an interview on Tuesday during the CeBIT technology fair in Hanover, without providing specific figures.

And we are planning to grow this year, even though at a slower rate than in previous years, Engel added.

Acer in February said its net profit of came in at T$3.51 billion in the October-December quarter, below market expectations for T$4.08 billion but better than the T$2.81 billion recorded a year earlier.

But the company has grown to become the world's No.2 PC brand in 2009, surpassing rival Dell, and Acer Chief Executive Gianfranco Lanci told Reuters in February the company aims to take the top spot from Hewlett-Packard within a year.

Engel said corporate business, which was hit hard last year as companies cut IT spending and refrained from buying new desktop computers, will recover this year.

The German consumer segment, too, will grow further this year and our goal is to stay market leader here, Engel said.

Acer led the German PC market in 2009 with a market share of about a fifth.

Dell Germany