Fujitsu shrugs off 62pc drop

Trade

Pictured: Fujitsu Siemens Computers MD Liam Halpin

The Irish arm of Fujitsu Siemens Computers (FSC) has shrugged off figures from IDC showing a 62% decline in unit shipments year on year in the second quarter. FSC claims it had increased revenues and was on track to hit its target for the six months from April to September.

Managing director Liam Halpin argued the figures from IDC were not an accurate reflection of the business because they did not take into account “shipments into Ireland by our UK-based distributors. As savings from economies of scale grow, it makes more sense for us to feed our volume business from stocks in the UK as opposed to having dedicated Irish stock.”

FSC recently appointed Computer 2000 to sell into the Irish market and Halpin revealed it was “looking at ways to improve the efficiency of local Irish distribution via UK stockholdings”.

He added the vendor was “on track to achieve our targets for this half of our financial year (April to September)” because it initiated a deliberate plan at the beginning of the year to walk away from deals where it did not make any money in favour of focusing on margin. It was waiting to “see sanity return to the market”.

“In a tough market, you’ve got to focus on profitability because that’s what pays the wages and keeps the lights on,” Halpin argued.

The vendor’s future business focus and direction was as a full infrastructure and services business and it was having “great success” that space with strong revenues in the storage and server consolidation areas.

As for the consumer market, where FSC has historically been strong in Ireland, Halpin admitted it was a “tough market”, claiming there was some “strange stuff going on vis a vis pricing. It’s very very difficult for anybody to make money in that space now”.

When Halpin assumed the top job at FSC Ireland, he told Irish Computer that he was aiming for a target of 15% market share, but last month he was unrepentant about the change in the vendor’s strategy. “We know what needs to be done to get 15% market share but we’re not prepared to spend money to get that market share as it would be at a loss,” he said.

Halpin’s comments came in the wake of a story in the Wall Street Journal in August suggesting Siemens was trying to get out of the FSC joint venture. Although FSC initially described the story as “baseless”, head of communications Stefan Mueller changed his tone slightly when he told MicroScope magazine: “The company will celebrate its tenth birthday and will still exist after autumn 2009 regardless of who the shareholders will be, whether it is Fujitsu, Siemens or Fujitsu and Siemens.”

Read More: Trade News