Hewlett-Packard (HP) Romania last year did not manage to dodge the problems its parent company experienced after the mega-merger with Compaq.
Still, these hardships are now history, as HP Romania surged more than 41% in the last fiscal year, logging over $100 million turnover. “The drive behind our growth was the entire market, but also the quality products the parent company makes,” said Radu Enache, general manager of HP’s Bucharest branch. The results are reported for HP’s last financial year ended October 31, 2003.
The trend is all the more spectacular considering HP also had a rougher time, soon after the merger with Compaq computer maker. “A year ago, by the second or third fiscal quarter we were behind our target. This year, HP simply boomed,” Enache explains. The Romanian branch at the end of the 2002 fiscal year logged only one million higher turnover compared with the cumulated HP – Compaq revenues. “I think we had a privileged situation in Romania. Both HP and Compaq were two powerful branches and complemented each other in terms of capabilities,” Enache added. The new branch was launched on the Romanian market in May 2002.
HP invested $1.5 million in equipping the new office in 2003 and doubled the number of employees to more than 120.
Most of the newcomers are either consultants or product line specialists.
“As for 2004, the parent company plans an over 10% growth for us, but we want more,” Radu Enache said. Hewlett-Packard logged more than $70bn revenues worldwide in the last fiscal year.
HP Romania takes after its parent company in terms of profitability, as it makes profits both company-wide and for each of its five departments (enterprise systems, consulting and integration services, client support service and outsourcing, image and printing, personal systems).
The personal systems group accounts for more than 30% of the total revenues, with the printing division contributing 30% and the remaining 40% derived from consulting, support, software and enterprise systems.