I picked up some IOM the other day when it hit 22.
Check this out. Interesting that they are touting Euro sales when that seems to be evrbody elses Achilles heel.
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Thursday October 9 5:18 PM EDT
Iomega sees Europe leading strong Q3
By Neal Boudette
FRANKFURT, Oct 9 (Reuter) - Data storage group Iomega Corp (IOM) said on
Thursday it expected surging European sales to stand out in the third quarter results
due later this month.
After building up its distribution network and strengthening its management team,
Iomega Europe was growing nearly three times faster than its U.S. and Asian units,
said Kevin O'Hare, managing director of Iomega International SA.
''Our third quarter ended September 30, and we are very encouraged by the continued
success in Europe,'' he told Reuters after a news conference in Munich.
O'Hare also said he was confident of winning a legal battle to stop a French company
from selling disks for Iomega's fast-selling ZIP drives.
Two weeks ago Iomega filed a complaint in Paris charging Nomai SA (NOMF.PA)
with unfair competition and patent, copyright and trademark violations.
A German court ruling last month cleared the way for Nomai to begin selling its disks in
France and Germany.
But O'Hare said that decision concerned only the shape of Nomai's disks. A
proceeding due to begin November 28 would decide whether Nomai used technology
patented by Iomega.
In the first six months of 1997, Iomega's group sales rose 51 percent to $762 million.
First-half European sales surged 80 percent to $215 million, including a second quarter
jump of 92 percent. In the same period, U.S. sales rose 28 percent and Asia sales
increased 30 percent.
O'Hare said he expected European sales to continue their rapid ascent, and attributed
the rise to an expansion of its European distribution system, and a bolstered
management team.
Iomega now has 4,000 retail stores in Germany, France and Britain selling is drives, up
from 1,000 a year ago. It also added several European-wide distributors.
Iomega Europe also added new directors of logistics, retail sales, marketing
communications and information technology. ''We've brought in seasoned executives
who have experience in running a multi-million dollar operation,'' O'Hare said.
To sustain growth in Europe, Iomega planned to expand sales and distribution in the
Benelux and Nordic countries in 1998.
Zip drives are similar to the 1.44 megabyte floppy drives that come with all personal
computers, but their disks can store 100 megabytes of data. |
