PADERBORN, Germany — Wincor Nixdorf grew its net sales by 7 percent to €1.4 billion (U.S. $1.7 billion) in fiscal 2002/03.

According to a news release, this is the fourth successive year since becoming an independent company that Wincor Nixdorf has increased its profit.

The revenue growth was generated from both the banking and retail businesses. The company made further progress in internationalizing its business, with foreign business now accounting for 62 percent of its earnings, according to the release.

Wincor Nixdorf added 365 employees in fiscal 2003, for a total of 4,983. Investment in research and development rose 5 percent to € 66.1 million (U.S. $82.8 million).

Wincor Nixdorf registered a breakthrough in its international branch IT outsourcing business in 2003, taking on the operation and maintenance of a network of 3,900 ATMs for British bank Barclays and its Woolwich subsidiary. Wincor Nixdorf will establish a customer call center in Dartford, Kent to support the initiative. (See related story Wincor Nixdorf to manage Barclays' ATMs in UK)

“We have again been able to grow our position as market and technology leader in the German banking market,“ said Karl-Heinz Stiller, the company's chief executive. For its German IT services business, the company expects to recruit some 140 new service technicians over the next few months, with the aim of providing a network of in-house technicians across Germany, supplemented as required with selected strategic partners.

In the French market, where Wincor Nixdorf enjoys the highest share of the retail market, the company assumed a 100 percent stake in joint venture partner Thales on Jan. 1.

“The first rays of sunshine are coming into view on the international economic horizon,” said Stiller, summing up results in the first three months of the new fiscal year which began on Oct. 1, 2003.

“Both in our IT solutions business with banks and also our retail business, our orders and revenue position is well ahead of the comparable period last year,” he said at the opening of Wincor World 2004.

Wincor World, an annual IT showcase for the banking and retail sectors, continues in Paderborn through Feb. 5. Wincor Nixdorf is hosting 60 companies that are displaying their products, services and solutions, 10 more than at its 2003 event.

As well as viewing 400 exhibits, visitors from more than 50 countries are attending workshops, lectures and a symposium on the challenges faced by banks and retailers. In addition, the well-known European Retail Institute and the North-Rhine-Westphalian Trade and Labor Ministry are presenting their Retail Innovations Conference as part of the show.

The focus for banks at Wincor World is branch fixtures and fittings as well as cash processes, deposit and recycling technologies and multichannel management via the company's ProClassic/Enterprise software architecture. Wincor Nixdorf is offering IT-based analysis tools for as early as the branch planning stage (BranchLab and ProCash/Optima), providing profitability analyses and decision aids for equipping branches.

Wincor Nixdorf is showing several new items of hardware, including a module for ATMs which accepts cash and checks. By using the so-called “check and cash deposit module” (CCDM), bank customers are able to pay in cash and checks outside business hours, according to the release.

In banking software, Wincor Nixdorf is offering ProClassic/Enterprise, which is the first system to pull together within a single architecture all of a bank’s sales channels such as self-service, telephone and Internet banking. The computing syndicate GAD eG, based in the German town of Münster, will use ProClassic/Enterprise to run more than 15,000 self-service terminals connected to the syndicate’s service data center.