Westborough, Massachusetts-based Proteon Inc puts the need to fire 15% of its workforce – and the consequent $2.7m loss for the quarter to April 3 (CI No 2,156) down to the fact that – in common with most other manufacturers in its area – is now doing little of its own manufacturing but sub-contracts most of it in order to benefit from application of the latest techniques in areas such as surface mounting. In the first quarter, virtually no manufacturing was left in-house, so the redundancies represent the residual rump of this trend, says Alan Swan, its new European General Manager. Although the next quarter is also expected to be bleak for Proteon – the near-collapse of the absurd European Exchange Rate Mechanism last year has had a poor effect on prices in Europe, causing them to rise – if Swan’s track record of success is anything to go by, Proteon’s results – at least in Europe – might well be expected to be turned round. Most recently Swan was business development manager for cc:Mail and Lotus Notes at Lotus Development Corp. Before that, Swan was at Madge Networks Ltd, where he turned the ailing business round in spectactular fashion. Proteon’s announcement that it is splitting its business into two divisions (one for adaptor boards and wiring centres; the other for internetworking and intelligent hub systems) is in line with what has been happening internally for some time, says Swan. The restructuring will enable it to focus better on the two areas of its expertise in both wide area and local networks. In Europe, Proteon’s products are showing good take-up, says Swan, to the extent that the company will start manufacturing in Scotland for the European market. According to Swan, Proteon has now almost completed its transition from its tenure of the network interface card and dumb hub sector to that of higher intelligence.
