Looking back over the past year, the managing director of Barcelona-based Olivetti Espana SA declares that the company is well-satisfied with the progress it made in the light of the figures of 14% growth in total turnover – the growth rate rising to 18% in the computing area, Tribuna Informatica reports. Turnover including exports totalled $198.9m, with the home market accounting for most of that, $177.8m. In addition, losses, which stood at $38.7m at the end of 1992, have been considerably reduced, although Solla would not be drawn on quoting hard figures. He puts the improvement in the company’s performance down to the modernisation of the range of equipment offered, the reactivation of indirect sales channels and success in establishing the company as a turnkey systems integrator. He claims that the company’s restructuring of two years ago has had positive results – in the last year, its costs have been reduced by 15%. It has a been a frenetic year according to Solla, with more new products being launched than ever – personal computers, ink-jet printers, servers, facsimile machines, typewriters plus the first steps being taken down the road to Digital Equipment Corp’s Alpha AXP RISC technology and the establishing of the company in the systems integration field. The managing director dispels rumours that were circulating last year, which suggested that manufacturing at the Barcelona factory, responsible for some of the losses of 1992, was to be shut down, with the work being transferred to Mexico, and that the plant would become a services centre, while he highlights the role this factory will play in Olivetti’s commitment to telecommunications and multimedia technology, with the new production of telephonic equipment already in progress there. Olivetti is betting its future on its consortium winning the franchise to build and operate the second Italian cellular telephone system, and has invested so much in terms of strategy and emotional capital in the venture that concerns are growing over the future of the company if it loses out to the Fiat SpA-led consortium, since it will quickly need to come up with an alternative strategy to avoid giving the impression that it is floundering and directionless. Questioned about the previously strained relations with the unionised workers at the plant, Solla maintains that there is a now a high degree of collaboration. Olivetti Espana ended 1993 with 825 employees in sales and services and 180 factory workers, 131 staff being lost overall during the year.
Corruption Charges
Elaborating on the company’s strategy to reactivate indirect sales channels, the managing director explains that the existing network of authorised dealers and distributors all over Spain has been complemented by the Olivetti Centres, a network of outlets offering service to the client, operated by the authorised dealers. Finally, on the subject of the repercussions caused by the corruption charges being levelled against group chairman and chief executive Carlo de Benedetti back home in Italy, Solla states that it was impossible for Olivetti Espana not to have suffered somewhat as a result of the publicity, although this was not evident in the sales figures. The storm clouds carrying concern and curiosity soon passed away, he adds.
