Compagnie des Machines Bull SA, whose long-defunct minicomputer arm licensed its Mitra designs for manufacture by Videoton, has capitalised on those long-standing links and claims to have captured 39% of the Hungarian market for automatic teller machines – and it has just won a contract to supply the Budapest Bank with 23 Model BQ 3140s. Bull’s sales and marketing manager Jean Luc Chalant said that the company had sold 61 machines to the country in all, and forecast this would rise to 200 during 1993. While he does not believe the market will be saturated for at least another three or four years, he said As a supplier, there is no magic success. It’s just a question of investment. Bull has set up six service and support centres at the group’s existing offices around the country. It has built up an inventory of spare parts, and guarantees percentage up-time and maximum repair times to local customers. The company has also launched new lines of outdoor and lobby teller machines, claiming they are more reliable and offer more privacy than previous models because they have upwardly-facing keyboards and high-resolution VGA screens. Sales development consultant, Mohamed Redha Mezghrani said that Bull shipped 1,410 machines worldwide during 1992, up from 1,081 in 1991. Two thirds of these were sold in France, he added, and this year, the target is 2,000 machines.
