Horizon bounces back

Horizon Technology enjoyed a 17 per cent year-on-year revenue increase in the first half of 2004, citing to a healthy systems integration market and an increase in market share.

The Irish-owned reseller posted turnover of €151m for the first six months of 2004 (H103: €129m). The company had a net profit of €2.1m (H103: €148,000) and earnings per share of €0.03 (H103: €002)

"We gained market share in Ireland and in the UK," Cathal O'Caoimh, chief financial officer, told ElectricNews.Net. "Our best estimate is that the market grew by five per cent, but our growth was 17 per cent, with no acquisitions and nothing fundamentally changed in the business."

Much of the company's revenue comes from reselling hardware from vendors such as Hewlett Packard and Sun Microsystems. Both vendros have struggled recently, despite a recovery in the IT market, so Horizon's buoyancy defies a trend.

O'Caoimh explained that although Horizon resells HP's personal computers, laptops and printers, it is not reliant on HP's server and storage products. This is the division of HP which is struggling.

Sun Microsystem's servers are a significant part of Horizon's business, but O'Caoimh pointed out that Sun's sales in Ireland and the UK are increasing, despite a decrease in sales globally.

Horizon Technology Group was founded in 1998 and employs around 200 people. Although this figure has not changed since the last half year results, the company has increased the number of revenue-generating IT consultants and has reduced the number of back-office administrative workers.

In morning trading on the ISEQ, Horizon stock was up two per cent at €1.05.

© ENN

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