On track with rapid expansion

Navman Wireless' Ian Daniel says they are on target to top $100 million in revenue this year. Photo / Steven McNicholl

A New Zealand technology company with global ambitions has made inroads into overseas markets despite tough economic conditions.

Fleet tracking specialists Navman Wireless - one of three companies spun out from the original GPS specialist, Navman, created by Peter Maire - has expanded its business into six new countries this year.

Vice-president Asia Pacific and Latin America Ian Daniel said despite the downturn the company had no plans to pull back on its aggressive expansion.

"Only one of our global markets got a little softer, everything else, the trend continued. The growth rates we'd forecast to hit, we have hit," he said.

Now in 15 countries, from Britain through to Thailand, the technology is in more than 100,000 vehicles in use for more than 7000 customers.

Navman Wireless technology gives any business owner running a vehicle fleet, from truckies to plumbers, the ability to track the location of its vehicles, the distance and time taken to get from point-to-point and how long was spent at a customer's premises.

The system consists of a desktop software package offering real time tracking and reporting functions based on information sent over the mobile phone network from a GPS tracking device inside the vehicle.

Businesses can add in-vehicle messaging and navigation systems to the basic package.

Benefits include accurate claims for mileage, improved timesheeting, the ability to tell customers how far away a service vehicle is and better navigation to and from jobs.

For many of the companies who have bought the system it has also been a revelation to discover just where their staff have been while "on the job".

Daniel said in a downturn companies have increasingly focused on productivity gains and better customer service "and our system ticks all those boxes".

Daniel said the same system can be used in every country the company is in with only the language needing to be customised.

Navman Wireless was divested from the main Navman company in 2007 through a combination of a management buyout and Chicago-based private equity player Prairie Capital chipping in US$13.9 million ($19.15 million).

Daniel said it is on target to top $100 million in revenue this year, most of that from markets outside of New Zealand.

The company is still in the same North Shore premises as Navman, but all functions of the businesses are separate.

It employs more than 200 staff worldwide, with research and development done in its New Zealand and Silicon Valley offices.

The hardware is manufactured in Indonesia by Flextronics.

"We design everything from the ground up here and push it up to Flextronics to contract manufacture on our behalf," said Daniel.

Daniel said the product is "telco agnostic" but the strategy had been to partner with the dominant telco in each country.

In New Zealand 90 per cent is through Telecom which sells the system through the Locate+ brand.