SMT International, the UK subsidiary of Paris-based SMT-Goupil SA, has been rethinking its company strategy after five relatively unsuccessful years in the British market. The re-think has resulted in a new name, Goupil UK Ltd, and a new managing director, Thierry Spitz. Originally from Alsace, Spitz has spent the past 20 years in the US and Canada, primarily with Xerox. He says that Goupil’s policy in the UK was too general to make the company visibly different from the competition, and a belief both within and without Goupil that it was solely in the business of laptops, meant that it was not addressing appropriate market sectors. Goupil is a desk-top company with a strong tradition of networking, and under his direction, it will concentrate on three main sectors. He is currently appointing major distributors to reach a wider dealer network, which he believes is the best way to reach the small-end user. However, Spitz acknowledges that distributors need discounts, and want to sell well-known names since they have to bear the cost of stocking products. Value added resellers also feature in his calculations. They are essential in reaching the turnkey market, but demand MIPS, reasonable costs, and more support from the manufacturer. The third target sector, corporate end users, are the most difficult to satisfy. According to Spitz they demand more than the distributors and resellers combined. Corporates want complete systems – machines, networks, file servers, database servers, training, support, and nationwide engineering services. But again, the public perception of a manufacturer is significant. A company must be seen to be reputable and financially stable. Given Goupil’s history in the UK, this gritty realism seems somewhat daunting, but Spitz appears to relish the challenge. He believes that the combination of the Golf SX, XT, and 286, the G50 departmental computers, and Goupil’s wide range of networks and operating systems including Unix, could make Goupil UK profitable for the first time, or at least break even. Over the last year, the SMT Group, has turned over $217m and achieved a profit of $6.1m, the majority of which came from the French domestic market. As regards the future, apart from further investment in the Golf range, already in the region of UKP50m, according to general sales manager Francois Baeza, Goupil is looking to expand its distributor network in the US. It is on the verge of signing an agreement with an American distributor for 6,000 desktops following a similar agreement in the Soviet Union for 2,000 machines. Claude Perdrillat, founder and group chairman, acknowledged that a US office is a possibility, but wouldn’t confirm that Santa Barbara is the chosen location, saying that the US is a difficult market for European companies. Even the combination of Zenith Data Systems and the 100% French state-owned Bull SA is far from being a guaranteed success. The French PTT owns 12% of Goupil’s shares, but according to Perdrillat, that does not mean taxpayers will fund any future acquisitions Goupil might make. The first half of next year should see the launch of a 80486-based machine. Spitz would prefer to see it launched into the French market initially, and he compared the need for a 486 machine with the need for a BMW. Of those who want it, possibly only 5% actually need or can use the performance that it offers. – Janice McGinn
