Sources close to Tulip NV, the Dutch PC designer, expects to break even in the first half of this year and to post net profit for the 12 months of 1999. Revenue for the year of around is expected to be $140m, from sales of between 110,000 and 120,000 unit shipments this year.
Tulip went into the Dutch equivalent to Chapter 11 proceedings in April last year (CI No 3,397), returning from the brink in mid-year thanks to the entry of new investors, the Begemann group, with an initial $50m injection of capital. At the same time, it sold its Hertogenbosch manufacturing facility to Ingram Micro of the US, then signed an outsourcing deal with Ingram for PCs of its own design.
The company has increased its product line over the last year, broadening its server offering from the ER departmental model, through the more scalable MR unit up to the 4-processor QR server for enterprise applications. An 8-processor box is likely only next year, the sources said.
In addition, the desktop line, which previously comprised the XD and the XM, the latter being the minitower version, has been augmented with the smaller footprint, NLX form factor versions, MD and CP. The sources added that negotiations are currently underway for a possible return by the company to the notepad market later this year.
Prior to last year’s problems, Tulip had grown to an international network covering 27 countries and selling, in its heyday, as many as half a million computers worldwide. After retrenching, the group now has operations in Holland, France, the UK, Germany, Belgium and Italy, with the first three countries as the largest contributors to revenue.
