Electronics company reports phenomenal growth

A research grant given to a small electronics company four years ago is paying off, with the company reporting annual turnover growth from virtually zero to $18 million in five years.

Prolificx New Zealand is an electronic designer and manufacturer of embedded hardware for the mobile communications market and employs more than 40 staff across New Zealand, Australia, Singapore and the United States.

In 2002, Prolificx received investment of $100,000 from the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology to help with the development of a single microprocessor computer board.

Since then, Prolificx has recorded a 260 per cent compound annual growth and its vice president of global strategies and marketing intelligence, Kevin Johnson, says it is time to consolidate.

Consolidation will not curb Prolificx's growth, with its biggest opportunity likely to come in the next six months as it works with Oracle, the world's largest enterprise software company, to develop enterprise level telematics systems for vehicle fleets worldwide.

The project could potentially result in sales of hundreds of thousands of the new technology units, Mr Johnson said.

Mr Johnson traces the success of Prolificx to the 2002 grant.

"The work we did then led to what we are doing today. The money was extremely important to us because the company had no other investment. It enabled our people to stay off other work and focus solely on the development of the computer board," he said.

Research and development were "absolutely critical" to keeping Prolificx a market leader.

"Every piece of cash goes into product development," he said.

- NZPA