News

Wincor profits, global market presence up from '05

February 27, 2006

PADERBORN, Germany -Profits and market share are up at Wincor Nixdorf International. During an opening-day press conference at the company's annual Wincor World trade event, company president and chief executive officer Karl-Heinz Stiller touted the Wincor's financial success. (Read also, Wincor World '06 highlights comprehensive banking, retail solutions.)

Earnings per share Jan. 24 hit €98 Euro (U.S. $118), a 57 percent increase from May 2004, when Wincor made its first public offering. And for the first time in the company's history, international employees outnumber German-based employees by 529.

Stiller said Wincor's expansion on the global scene has necessitated the need for a stronger global presence, especially in North America and Asia. (In November, Wincor announced the appointments of John Tyler and Bill Raymond to help build the company's presence in The States. Read more.)

"We have to understand our customers and what they are doing with the international market," Stiller said. "We are present in 90 countries, so we can support our customers on an international basis."

In the first quarter of fiscal year 2006, which ended Dec. 31, Wincor hired 346 new employees to help develop its service business and promote expansion in so-called retail and banking "growth" markets, which include the United States and Asia.

Focus on growth

Over the course of the next year, retail's 4.1 percent growth is expected to slightly outpace banking, which is slated to increase 3.1. Leveraging some of that growth as an extension of Wincor's "core business" is its service division, which is now being led by Stefan Auerbach.

Wincor's focus in the market will revolve around branch-restructuring, process-optimization, Internet, security and software-standardization solutions, and combining the company's expertise in those areas to provide across-the-board service solutions.

"We want to extend our core business," Stiller said.

Auerbach said the move into service is important.

"We have worked to expand service to all places where we have customers. We have 26 call centers (throughout the world), and we want to add 10 more in 10 years."

Working with 70 partners from around the world is helping the company's growth, Stiller added, and a quick spin around the Wincor World trade-show floor supports that conclusion. Global players like Microsoft and ACI are only two of the big names at Wincor World showing off solutions they're putting out into the market with Wincor.

*To read more Wincor World updates, check back in with ATMmarketplace all this week.