Continuing to defy gravitym one of Europe’s few indigenous personal computer manufacturers, Tulip Computers NV, of Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands, is able to describe 1991 as a satisfactory year financially, with turnover for the period edging up to the equivalent of $214m, an increase of 3% on 1990. Only the UK and its home Dutch market registered lower revenues than for the year before, it notes. As a whole, sales were hit particularly hard in the first half, falling 8% against the first half of 1990 – largely a result of the negative impact of the Gulf War, says Tulip. Net profit fell 13% to $8.65m, despite the inclusion of an extraordinary gain of $2m, on the sale of its manufacturing premises, which it will continue to rent for five years while the new factory – which, after much hesitation between Ireland and the Netherlands – is being built on a site nearby. Overall, the maker of the Tulip Vision line of computers estimated that 1991 saw a 15% decrease, in value, for the European personal computer market measured against 1990 figures, and made reference to the number of bankruptcies that occurred during the period, particularly in the distribution sector. Despite these factors, it claims that a reduction of costs in the production process has meant that its margin of profit has in fact increased to 39.5%. The company is unexpectably upbeat about the fate of the personal computer industry as a whole, arguing that once the malaise is over, growth rates of between 15% to 20% a year for a period up to five years can be expected – this Tulip bases on what it estimates to be a 25% lower penetration of personal computers into European businesses when compared with the level in the US.
