SCHOOLS are back, and that should mean that business should pick up at Scotsys, Scotland's largest Apple Macintosh supplier.
The company, founded by Joe McAuley and Pat Docherty in 1982, expects their annual turnover this year to come close to #10m compared with #8.5m last year and #7.5m the previous year.
Managing director Joe McAuley expects the increased business to come partly from their sales and marketing role with Xemplar Education the recent joint venture between Apple and Acorn.
Scotsys has a firm grip on the education business in Scotland with their customers including the 2000 schools in the former Strathclyde region, and also universities such as Glasgow, Edinburgh, Strathclyde, and Glasgow Caledonian.
``We are the largest suppliers of computer equipment to universities in Scotland,'' said Joe McAuley.
The company based in Bellshill, Lanarkshire, presently employs 52 people expects this to grow, as schools begin to form computer networks and also to access the Internet, and as the industry begins to standardise their ``boxes''.
Joe McAuley and Pat Docherty formed Scotsys in 1982 when they both returned from Belgium where they had worked in the European Space Lab.
After a short period they formed an association with Scotlab but in 1985 they bought out the Scotlab shares, and today they own 85% of Scotsys shares.
Since then they have developed the business with Apple Centres in Bellshill and Leith and a small office in Glasgow University.
They have now formed a sister company, Softwaretechnetics, which they both have a stake in.
Scotsys is also well established in the media and design industry and earlier this year clinched an #185,000 deal with Caledonian Newspapers, to upgrade editorial operation in Glasgow, Edinburgh, and London.
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