The personal computer market is the latest major strategic business market for Siemens-Nixdorf France, managing director since May Jacques Reboul told La Tribune-Defosses in a recent interview. With its low-cost line of ‘Scenic’ personal computers and a completely renewed personal computer offering that will be sold via indirect sales only, Siemens Nixdorf is aiming to be one of the top five personal computer manufacturers in Europe within the next three years, says Reboul. He said Siemens Nixdorf has a manufacturing capacity at its site in Augsburg of 1m personal computers, and expects to produce 560,000 next year. Confronted with a personal computer price war, Reboul said Siemens Nixdorf has already dropped its prices by between 12% and 20%, depending on the model. The price war will can continue: the more our sales volume increases, the more profitable becomes our manufacturing. In this market, we have the strategy of a manufacturer, not a financier. We will align our prices with the next price war, which will probably occur in March or April 1995, Reboul said. Siemens Nixdorf France’s remaining areas of development will continue to be Unix machines, high-end printers, automatic teller machines and point-of-sale terminals, he said. Although Siemens Nixdorf France, which has annual sales of approximately $305m, expects a net loss of approximately $61m this year, Reboul says the subsidiary is financially clean, and should pay off next year. People often ask me how I plan to arrive at a balanced budget by next year. It’s no miracle: besides the reduction in our salary costs, our office space has fallen to 405,000 square feet from 630,000. Our restructuring is finished and I pay homage to my predecessor Kurt Hollederer, who did all of the dirty work! Reboul says he intends to double or triple Siemens Nixdorf France’s revenue over the next five years.
