Optima quadruples PC production potential with new base

Australian box-builder Optima Technology Solutions has opened new headquarters in Sydney's Homebush Bay in its next battle salvo against the multinationals.

The new facility is capable of churning out 1000 PCs a shift - up from 250 at Optima's old Silverwater home. It is also expected to better support the company's new consumer electronics division.

John Della Bosca, NSW Minister of Commerce, cut the ribbon at the purpose-built Parramatta Road premises late last week at a special event for customers, channel and media.

"[Optima] is a great Australian success story. The competition from multinationals is fierce. A PC company's business plan needs to be very aggressive to survive," Della Bosca said. "Optima has been successful in competing against some of the world's biggest multinationals in a range of contracts."

Optima had grown strongly for 15 years and looked well placed to go on growing for the next 15, Della Bosca said.

Cornel Ung, chairman of ASX-listed Optima, founded the company as a small reseller in 1989 and as CEO masterminded the company's transition into a box-builder.

"It took 18 months to find these premises," he said. "It's a huge opportunity for us to expand. We're only using one quarter of what we have here so far."

The company's long term strategy was to keep growing Australian market share over the next 15 years and target a sustained 30 percent year-on-year growth to reap $300 million a year in revenue in three years, Ung said.

Michael Calculli, channel manager at Optima, said the new headquarters would help the company better serve its dealer network. In the past, Optima had been forced to disappoint some reseller requests due to logistical limitations at the old premises, he said.

"Here we can do up to 2700 [of all kinds of] machines a day," he said. "And we've got new management coming in."

Calculli said that new boss Douglas Wong - who replaced Ung as CEO earlier this year - was also proving a boon. Wong's previous experience at Acer had contributed to his skills in planning and organisation, Calculli said.

Marie Evans, marketing director at Optima, said the new headquarters was already servicing some 150,000 PCs. The opportunity of getting machines serviced promptly by local technicians appealed greatly to customers, she said.

"We have 40 rack-mounted servers for our environment, and our own power supply, and a backend running SAP," she said.

Optima also did re-manufacturing for companies including Leading Edge, Evans said.

"We can get 800 pallets out the door in one day, depending on pallet size," Evans said.