APPLE TAKES A BIGGER BITE OUT OF THE CONTINENT

The computer maker is closing in on the No. 2 spot in PCs

Not long ago, it seemed that Mike Spindler might be in trouble. Back home,
Apple Computer Inc.’s Macintosh was finally catching on with business. But
Apple Europe, the marketing operation that Spindler headed, was bogged down
– as it had been since 1983 when IBM displaced Apple as Europe’s leading PC
supplier. While IBM and Compaq were growing faster in Europe than in the
US, Apple Europe was stuck at about 13% of total Apple revenues. Fast-
growing Olivetti had pushed Apple down to No. 3 on the Continent.
Now that’s changed. In the year ended Sept. 30, Apple Europe’s sales jumped
87%, vs. 53% for Apple’s overall revenues. Its share of PC sales to European
businesses has grown from 5% in 1986 to more than 7%. And Apple is vying
with Compaq and Olivetti for No.2 behind IBM’s 28%, according to market
researcher Intelligent Electronics Europe.
“The Diesel”. Apple Chairman John Sculley is counting on more of the same to
achieve his goal of boosting Apple’s annual revenues from $4 billion in 1988 to
$10 billion in the early 1990s. Spindler figures that Apple Europe will account
for 40% of Apple sales by then. And its contribution to its profits should be
even greater: steeper prices mean that Apple’s operating margins are nearly
twice as high in Europe as in the US.
When Sculley took control of Apple in 1985, he called Spindler back to
headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., to plot Apple’s first comprehensive
international strategy. European and Asian operations were to be run more
independently, building products and tailoring marketing locally. The strategy
reflects Spindler’s style: long-range planning and constant work rather than
spectacular coups. Before joining Apple in 1980, Spindler had spent seven years
with Digital Equipment Corp. in Europe, where the 46-year-old German became
known as “the diesel” because “he never stopped running”, recalls Hans-
Wolfgang Dirkmann, a top DEC executive in Europe.