Bull: 1st Quarter 2005 Revenue
and 2005 Action Plan
Revenue stabilized -
Orders up by 24%
Paris,
May
12, 2005 -
Group Bull's revenue for the 1st quarter 2005 stood at 257 million euros compared to 262 million euros, a decrease of 2%, for the same period last year, confirming the upturn already observed in the second half of 2004.
Orders increased by 24% in the 1st quarter 2005 representing the highest increase since 2002. This growth applied to products and, to a lesser extent, to services and concerned most of the Group's geographies - further indication of the Group's ability to grow its revenues again.
For the 1st half of 2005, Bull expects to reach the objectives presented together with its 2004 results, i.e. revenue of 560 million euros and an EBIT of 18 million euros.
Operations
During the 1st quarter 2005, Bull strengthened its product offering, in particular the Intel® processor based NovaScale servers, the Power 5 based Escala servers, as well as its security product line.
During the same period, Bull also won a number of key contracts with its NovaScale servers, both in open and GCOS environments, and in the management of complex infrastructures.
2005 action plan
Backed up by a healthy financial situation and a solid client base, Bull has defined a five-step action plan for 2005 aimed at setting the Group on a profitable growth path.
These steps are as follows:
1/ Composition of a top management team bringing together internal and external talent.
2/ Implementation of a management system focused on operational efficiency.
3 / Definition of five key operational programs:
o Speed up the improvement of French services activities, the objective being to improve their bottom line performance and achieve operational profitability above 5% by 2007,
o Achieve turnaround of operations in Italy, the objective being to reach breakeven at the end of 2005,
o Launch a sales stimulation effort through process optimization as well as focusing on priority markets and offerings,
o Improve productivity and maintain tight cost control,
o Improve execution in both project and supply chain management, and in manufacturing.
4/ Redefinition and refocusing of strategic orientations prioritized according to their growth potential
5/ Finalization during the second half of 2005 of a long-term strategic business plan
Conclusion
Didier Lamouche, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, stated: "The focus of our teams helped us to achieve a very good level of orders in the first quarter and demonstrated Bull's potential to bounce back. The gearing up of the new top management team and the turnaround of areas in which we are weak will certainly boost our operational performance. In the short-term, one of our challenges is to restore our image which does not reflect the quality of our people and our technology".
|
