Sun Microsystems distributor SolNet has bucked the trend of gloom in the IT sector, increasing its revenue over the past year 15 per cent to $101 million.
The result was knocked by the collapse of Telemedia, which had bought a large number of Sun servers from SolNet.
Managing director Mark Botherway
said that had a significant impact.
Revenues from sales of Sun hardware were $58 million, about 8 per cent up on the previous year.
Sun has 60 per cent of the New Zealand market in Unix servers, according to research firm International Data Corporation, but market growth is slowing. SolNet is therefore seeking other sources of revenue by building up its services and software development businesses.
SolNet - a private company owned by Murray McNae (49 per cent), Mr Botherway, John Hanna and Peter Weaver (17 per cent each) - increased its revenue from software, services and development by 32 per cent to $18 million. It increased staff by 50 per cent to 118 in New Zealand. The company did not reveal its profit performance.
SolNet expanded into Australia during the year, opening offices in Melbourne and Sydney.
Mr Botherway said that while the Australian operation made a loss for the year, reflecting the high set-up costs and the depressed state of the market there, SolNet was forecasting more than 100 per cent growth and a small profit in the coming year.
For the New Zealand operation, it is forecasting 15 per cent growth for the Sun side of the business and 40 per cent for SolNet.
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