Fujitsu Espana SA, now 60%-owned by the Japanese company in partnership with Compania Telefonica Nacional de Espana SA, has revealed details of an ambitious expansion plan that it hopes will take it to the number two spot in the Spanish market behind IBM by 1991. And, as Fujitsu’s principal European base, the subsidiary is intended to spearhead its thrust into the rest of the European computer market. On the product front, the company is promising a new general-purpose computer for launch very shortly, and is also looking for 20% of the Spanish personal computer market with an IBM Personalike. The five-year plan calls for the company to raise turnover 25% this year to the equivalent of $175m, and grow it to $500m by 1989; employment is targeted to double to 2,600 from the present 1,300 over the same period, while manufacturing capacity at its plant in Malaga is to quadruple. The company will also triple investment this year over 1986, and will establish a third research centre in Malaga to complement the ones in Madrid and Barcelona. The new centre will specialise in telecommunications and top-end product development. Fujitsu sidled into Spain in 1975 when it was a neglected computer market, and made some very tentative proposals that led to the sale of the first M-series IBMulators in Europe to Telefonica, which uses them as the basis of a bureau service, and took a 20% minority stake in a manufacturing joint venture to manufacture banking terminals and office computers. And all the time, it was making friends with the right people in government, and patiently learning the market. Spain is now a member of the EEC and is anxious to modernise its industry and commerce, and Fujitsu has become an indispensable part of those plans.
