Tech
£1 billion Compaq UK story continues
14 years ago, Joe McNally, a former Geordie butcher set up shop in the fledgling business of making personal computers.
He had been given £18,000 by the US parent to set up the UK subsidiary for a start-up that had made a sharp beginning in emulating IBM's PC design - Compaq. Yesterday, with what used to be called 'IBM-format computing' pretty well established all over the world, Compaq Computer once again said it had passed £1 billion in revenues. In 1995, the firm had become the first non-American Compaq subsidiary to pass $1 billion revenues.
Clocking up average sales growth of 47 per cent ever since, McNally remains managing director of the Richmond-based firm which is now a distance leader in UK PC sales.
1997 worldwide sales swelled to $24.6 billion, up from $20 billion a year ago, with income up to $2.1 billion.