THE US electronics giant Hewlett Packard (HP), which will create 2,000 jobs in Leixlip, Co Kildare, over the next four years, has reported strong sales growth in Ireland for the first nine months of its financial year.
Irish sales have increased by 34 per cent to £40 million during the nine months to the end of July, according to HP Ireland. The company is hopeful of further growth, boosted in part by a higher public presence in Ireland with its planned £320 million investment.
Sales in the first nine months of its financial year have already equalled last year's turnover, according to Mr Brian Kennan, managing director of Hewlett Packard Ireland (Sales). The IT sector in Ireland remains very healthy and we are pleased to be continuing to gain market share," he said.
Sales of its Hewlett Packard computer and printer products in Ireland actually increased by more than 34 per cent over the past nine months, but a smaller number of large capital investments led to reduced turnover in the company's instrumentation division.
The instrumentation business is "holding steady" and maintaining its market share, but turnover did fall due to fewer large scale projects.
Mr Kennan said there was strong growth in sales of personal computers and UNIX systems, while HP's NetServer business had been particularly buoyant. NetServer sales had increased by more than 250 per cent, he added, boosted by the increasing growth of the Internet.
The maintenance and consulting business also continues to be important, according to Mr Kennan.
He said that, while having a major manufacturing plant in Ireland would help local sales in the longer term, the company had yet to feel the knock on effect of the £320 million investment.
"We wouldn't be a household name here yet, but we hope to be," he added.
HP is building two separate printer cartridge component plants in Leixlip, which will together employ a total of almost 2,000 people.
HP's Irish sales division, in Blackrock, Co Dublin, employs more than 80 people.
Work on the thirst of the two new printer cartridge component plants is well under way and the initial construction phase of the first plant should be completed next month. Fitting out the 300,000 sq ft building is expected to take three months and the first production workers should move into the plant shortly afterwards.
About 450 staff have already been recruited, and the inkjet cartridge manufacturing unit is currently operating from temporary premises in Blanchardstown, Dublin.
Hewlett Packard said on Thursday that its worldwide after tax profits for the third quarter bad fallen by 26 per cent to $425 million (£266 million). The drop in profits included the impact of ending its disk mechanism manufacturing business. Profits for the first nine months of its financial year were up 10 per cent to $1.9 billion.
Turnover for the third quarter increased by 18 per cent to $9.1 billion, while sales for the nine month period grew by 26 per cent to $28.3 billion.
