Compaq, the US computer company with 600 staff in its Dublin call-centre, released record financial results yesterday.

The firm said its sales for 1997 touched $24.6 billion (£17.9 billion), an increase of 23 per cent on the previous year, while profits climbed 60 per cent to $2.1 billion.

The company also said its fourth quarter results had set records, with sales rising 23 per cent to $7.3 billion and earnings climbing 37 per cent to $667 million, compared with the 1996 period.

"We continued to execute well across all areas of our business," said the company's president and chief executive, Mr Eckhard Pfeiffer. "Compaq's volume grew more than two and a half times the industry's rate, while increasing profitability."

In 1996, Compaq located its call centre for Europe, the Middle East and Africa in Dun Laoghaire. The operation employs almost 600 people and handles four million calls a year. The company also purchases more than £367 million in computer parts in Ireland.