Multi-user MS-DOS microcomputer builder North Star Computers Ltd, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire has finally updated its Dimension range with 80286 and 80386-based machines using Novell Advanced NetWare 286. The company will also ship an 80386-based machine running Xenix System V later this year. The 80186-based Dimension multiuser machine was launched in 1984, since when the company claims to have installed 2,000, each with an average of five users, in the UK. North Star keeps a rather low profile and seems happy to continue along the same lines. The privately-held company was set up in 1976 and its American backers are exercising to the full their incorporated rights give little away about their business. UK general manager John Hartnell won’t even say who the backers are. He is equally reticent about the market share – such as the geographical spread of turnover across North Star’s European and US operations – but claims to rank about third in the small and medium sized UK multiuser business market. The company expects UK turnover of between UKP8m and UKP10m during the current financial year compared with UKP5m last year. And profits? All Hartnell would say was that the UK operation is ‘extremely’ profitable. North Star has an assembly and manufacturing plant in Cork, Republic of Ireland, where North Star Plc, the European operation which wholly owns North Star Computers Ltd and North Star GmbH – is headquarted. In the past 18 months North Star has moved most manufacturing from San Leandro to Cork where it employs 120 and also has research and development facilities, an indirect sales team and a European support unit. It retains a quality assurance and sales and marketing presence at San Leandro with 50 people.
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