Paul Johnston - from military systems to musical hardware

Paul Johnston

The Apple iPod may be a million miles away from graphics terminals on nuclear submarines, but for Paul Johnston, managing director at Renaissance in Auckland, they are key elements in a long and fascinating career path.

Johnston came to New Zealand 17 years ago from Scotland, where he worked as an engineer for a company called Tektronix, builder of high-end graphics systems for engineering, scientific research, the military and pre-press.

Part of his job was to service terminals on nuclear-powered submarines and support ships. Tektronix also worked with oil companies, engineering firms such as Rolls-Royce Aerospace, and the British and US military.

After moving to New Zealand, Johnston began working in sales.

"PCs and Macs started taking over a lot of the market and that is where the focus shifted to," he says.

Johnston eventually switched to selling top-of-the-line printers.

"I got to know people in the Apple distribution and reseller channel, which stood me in good stead when nine or 10 years later I came to work at Renaissance - the core of which was the original Apple distribution business."

Johnston started work with Renaissance eight years ago, moving into his role as managing director about three years ago. He says the company's successes are due to a team effort, crediting finance director Clive Lewis with playing a significant part in this.

Renaissance had its origins in the late 1960s as a publicly listed company called The Consolidated Silver Mining Company of New Zealand.

The original firm handling distribution for Apple computers in New Zealand, called CED, branched out and bought the Microsoft distribution business, as well as the distribution for Hewlett Packard, Toshiba - and Renaissance, which dealt with Adobe products. The combined business was eventually named Renaissance.

For a time there were two major distribution businesses, Tech Pacific and Renaissance, sharing agencies between them.

"It came down to who could deliver a product 10 minutes quicker than the other and for a dollar cheaper," Johnston says.

Interesting times, he says, but they did little for Renaissance.

"We made a decision to exit that strategy and to go back to the core of the business, which is really about managing the brand and really doing added-value distribution where you look after things like channel development and marketing for the brand - all aspects of the business as if the vendor was actually here in the country. It's been a very successful transition for us, to go back to that."

Renaissance has five business units: Insite Technology assembles PC systems in Christchurch; Conduit International builds transactional websites and provides enterprise resource planning support for companies in New Zealand and Australia; the Apple division handles all things Apple; Brands handles brand representation and distribution for companies such as Palm, Sierra Wireless, US Robotics and Macromedia; and finally Itas provides software, hardware and technical support to schools.

Shares in Renaissance jumped 6.6 per cent to $1.30 last week after the company said half-year profit was up 150 per cent on last year.

Net profit for the six months to June 30 was $1.93 million, up from $775,000 for the same period last year.

Revenue of $69.5 million was up from $51.2 million and the company is expecting a record result for the full year. The share price has more than doubled in less than a year.

Paul Johnston

Favourite gadget: "As of now, my Palm Treo ... the superb keyboard allows me to text as fast as my daughters - almost."
Next big thing in tech: Rapid uptake of high-quality, on-demand video to homes, telephones and mobile computers is likely in the next three to five years.
Alternative career: Talkback radio host.
Spare time: Spends time with his family whenever possible and tries to get in the odd game of golf.
Favourite sci-fi film: Blade Runner, The Director's Cut.