Marconi to meet target, but no more

Marconi chief executive Mike Parton has told investors that his company will meet its gross margin target of 34% this year, but does not expect to deliver upside benefits 'over and above this target’. The announcement followed the release of Marconi’s quarterly financials, which showed static sales in the three months to September 2004 of GBP305 million. Marconi has recently ramped up efforts to win additional business from its biggest customer BT, which accounted for 32% of its sales in the second quarter of 2004. BT recently announced a major overhaul of its network to IP technology, and in response Marconi has upped its investment in its softswitch technology. Marconi believes it has a good chance of winning BT’s business, and has already participated in trials of the new technology with the telco.