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Mustek turns to big data, tablets

Nicola Mawson
By Nicola Mawson, Contributor.
Johannesburg, 25 Feb 2015
Mustek hopes to push its products into the education sector.
Mustek hopes to push its products into the education sector.

Mustek, which this morning said revenue in the six months to December gained 24.6% to R2.5 billion, says desktop unit sales are not showing high growth, but its diverse portfolio gives it other options.

The company says it has a "strong variety" of entry-level, mid-level and aspirational tablets, and also expects to gain through a shift towards big data, which will be a focus for it over the next six months. "We have seen significant growth and experienced great success in this sector after the period-end with our NEC server, NEC storage and Fujitsu scanner ranges."

Mustek recognises big data management will be key to optimal client retention and procurement, and it will begin exploring opportunities with strategic partners in the service and storage area, it says.

The listed company adds it has been investing in e-learning as a teaching and learning tool, and believes it is "well-positioned" to grow its market share in this sector over the next three to five years. "The amount of interest shown by various provinces during the last few months is encouraging."

In addition, Mustek aims to take advantage of Lenovo's pending local launch of its ThinkServer, noting it has not previously been a significant player in this market. "We have started ramping up operations to take hold of the opportunity presented in the local market."

Its revenue gains in the first half of the year were boosted by income from its Huawei Enterprise Solutions division, its Microsoft Volume Licensing offering, and Rectron Australia. However, it reported a marginally lower gross profit percentage, from 13.9% to 13.4%, due to lower gross profit in its Huawei and Microsoft businesses.

"Although the gross profit percentages achieved by these new lines of business are lower, their contributions to profit are expected to continue growing."

Mustek is also starting to see some traction in its CCTV surveillance and cabling products, and expects growing contributions to both revenue and profit in the future.

Its share price gained 5.7% during the day, to trade at R9.15.

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