With 70% of its business now done outside France and a further major international expansion in place with the acquisition of Zenith Data Systems, Groupe Bull feels it’s time to put a new organisational structure in place. At the head of the empire is Compagnie des Machines Bull SA, which will be responsible for defining the product strategy and following it through by ensuring the integration and co-operation of research and development activities worldwide, as well as looking after optimisation of the human and financial resources of the group. Under Machines Bull will come four major operational units, three wholly-owned, the most significant change being the creation of Bull SA France and Bull International SA as separate entities. Bull France, which employs 19,000 people, will be responsible for development, manufacturing and marketing in France. Bull International, with 6,000 people, has responsibility for Europe outside France, the UK and Italy, plus Africa, Latin America and most of South-East Asia. Bull HN has responsibility for development, manufacturing and marketing for the US, Mexico, the UK, Italy, Australia and some Far Eastern countries; it also has 19,000 employees and is held 69.4% by Machines Bull, 15% by NEC Corp and 15.6% by Honeywell Inc. And Zenith Data Systems takes responsibility for development, manufacturing and marketing of microcomputers worldwide for the group: it brings another 6,000 employees to the party. A new worldwide Corporate Executive Committee consists of Roland Pampel, head of Bull HN and of Zenith Data Systems and now group senior executive vice-president; Michel Bloch, executive vice-president in charge of strategy and planning; Carlo Peretti, managing director of Bull HN Italia; and Didier Ruffat, manager of Bull International SA. The company has also tapped ICL’s European chief, Jean-Claude Albrecht to be manager of the new Bull SA France. On its numbers, Bull, which made a profit last year equivalent to $50.5m on sales of $5,250m at current rates in 1988, expects to report small losses for 1989 on turnover up by a very modest 4% – excluding any Zenith contribution – when the figures are announced at the end of this month.
