The downturn in the PC market will soon see one of New Zealand’s best-known locally assembled brands, Cyclone, vanish from the market.
Cyclone began assembling its own PCs in 1988.
“We’re winding down the brand and will be out of the market by the end of the year,” says managing director Richard Morgan.
“We used to be the largest local assembler, at 6500 units a year, but we can’t be price competitive any more. Margins are the hard one.”
Instead, Cyclone will focus on Hewlett-Packard, Samsung and Apple as its key brands. The company is the sole supplier of iPads to government and is one of three all-of-government Apple suppliers.
There will be no job losses. Morgan says the company is far more these days into professional services and break-fix.
“”Turnover, in fact, is up substantially. We did $55 million last year, and this year we are on target to do $60 million.”
Cyclone employs 55 staff at its Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin centres.