HP Australasia Announces Local Results
Growth Of 20 Percent Consolidates HP's Market Position In Region
AUCKLAND, 16 November 2000 - Hewlett-Packard Australasia today consolidated its market position in Australia and New
Zealand with the announcement of the company's 2000 annual results.
The results - based on growth of around 20 percent, take annual revenue to A$1.6 billion (unaudited) -- reinforcing the
company's decision to reinvent its business strategy globally.
Barry Hastings, Managing Director, Hewlett-Packard New Zealand said: "We're now in the unique position of being at the
intersection of 'always on' infrastructure, e-services and smart appliances. This focus has helped us consolidate our
position as a major IT player.
"The results are extremely pleasing, as the year has been a challenging one in the New Zealand market. Beginning with a
Y2K industry lock down and a new government, the first quarter was resultingly flat. Our greatest challenge in the
second half, was the massive devaluation of our dollar against the greenback. With annual targets set and measured in US
dollars, this had quite an impact.
"That said, our consumer business and small-to-medium business sector has remained bouyant, and during the second half
we saw an upswing in business solutions."
Newly appointed, Managing Director of Hewlett-Packard Australasia, Norman McCann, who will visit New Zealand next week,
said the company had recorded regional exports of A$192.5 million and invested almost A$15 million in research and
development in Australia.
"HP is a strong advocate of the domestic and global IT industry," he said. "Our continued commitment to sustaining the development of investments in Australia is absolutely
critical to maintaining long-term growth in this sector."
HP's global highlights during the year included the completion of the split from Agilent Technologies in June,
(officially ending a process that began in March 1999) and the launch of the most advanced and exciting high end UNIX
server solution - Superdome - onto the market.
Local highlights
* Hewlett-Packard Australasia signed a landmark eight-year, $280Million alliance with Novare, a fully integrated
providers of business support and IT services. The alliance, one of the largest of its kind for HP in the Asia Pacific,
positioned HP as the exclusive provider of IT operations services to Novare. * The Australasian HP Garage Program was
launched in June 2000 providing a complete offering to facilitate the success of start-ups, dot-coms and other IT
ventures. Australia was one of the three markets in Asia Pacific to implement the Garage Program. HP will fund up to
A$3million per company and expects to invest in 15 to 20 companies through the Dot-Com Program and five companies under
the Export Program in the next three years. In 2000, funding was awarded to two companies in Australia, BOBS.com.au and
iSelect and one in New Zealand, Yippee Ltd. (Mambezi.com and Yippee.net). * In September, HP launched its most
significant server solution for 2000 - Superdome. This single package combines the world's most powerful, flexible and
available UNIX® computing platform with an industry-first go-to-market business model. Two thirds of the Asia Pacific
region's orders have come from Australia. * Commercial and consumer PC sales and growth continued to be strong
during 2000. HP was nominated by resellers as the "overall preferred supplier" in six of 13 categories announced by
Inform including printer vendor, storage vendor, desktop PC vendor, mobile PC vendor, PC server vendor and
small/mid-range server vendor. * HP pioneered world leading wireless technology with the New Zealand Stock
Exchange. This allows clients to trade and transfer securities directly without passing through a broker. * HP New
Zealand's sponsorship of Kidz First Hospital in South Auckland, which will officially open in December.
* HP Australia won the "Best employer to work for in Australia" award in the over 1,000 employees category.
The Future
McCann said HP Australasia would continue to build on the achievements and growth of 2000.
"Australasia is one of the most dynamic and sophisticated IT markets in the region," he said, "and I believe there is
great potential to fully explore this market.
"With the enormous number of exciting innovations emerging not only from HP, but throughout the IT industry, we have the
opportunity to achieve significant growth in our business in this region."
"We have entered a fundamentally different phase in the Internet era and that's where our e-services strategy comes in.
HP's overall business strategy is to invent useful customer solutions at the intersection of e-services, information
appliances and an always on Internet infrastructure.
"The real promise and power for business lies in the linkages - the connections, the intersection - of these three
emerging forces. It is by understanding the interplay between them that we have the opportunity to use technology to
fundamentally transform the customer experience, the value creation process and entire industries."
About HP
Hewlett-Packard Company -- a leading global provider of computing and imaging solutions and services -- is focused on
making technology and its benefits accessible to individuals and businesses through simple appliances, useful e-services
and an Internet infrastructure that's always on.
HP has 86,000 employees worldwide and had total revenue from continuing operations of $48.8 billion in its 2000 fiscal
year.
HP Australasia has over 1,300 employees in Australia and New Zealand and total revenue of A$1.6 billion in its 2000
fiscal year. Information about HP and its products can be found at www.hpnz.co.nz