Sophos Continues to Grow at Twice the Market Rate
Sophos, a world leader in anti-virus protection for businesses, today announced financial results for the year ended 31st March 2003.
Global highlights:
* Turnover increased 30 percent to Â?41.0 million, up from Â?31.6 million in the previous year.
* Profit before tax grew 24 percent to Â?12.1 million (2002: Â?9.8 million).
* Profit after tax grew 59 percent to Â?10.1 million (2002: Â?6.3 million).
Analyst group IDC expects the anti-virus market as a whole to grow at 15 percent annually between 2002 and 2007*. This year, Sophos’s turnover grew at twice this rate – 30 percent – demonstrating the company’s continued success in capturing market share in the highly competitive anti-virus market.
The company has now enjoyed several consecutive years of impressive and steady growth. Since 1994, Sophos has experienced compound annual turnover growth of 42 percent and compound pre-tax profits growth of 44 percent.
“Sophos has achieved consistent growth over the last year and for the third consecutive year we have outperformed the anti-virus market as a whole,” said Peter Lammer, joint CEO for Sophos Plc. “Our strategy of developing protection specifically designed for networked corporate environments, backed up with round-the-clock support, is clearly working.”
Sophos has continued to experience strong employee growth, with the current total headcount nearing 550 employees. The UK headcount alone has increased 34 percent since April 2001 and is set to continue as Sophos’s new Â?32 million global headquarters is scheduled to open alongside its existing Oxfordshire offices in October 2003.
The company also expanded its worldwide reach with certification for use in mainland China and will be releasing versions of its award-winning products in Brazilian Portuguese and Korean as well as traditional and simplified Chinese.
Sophos also increased its number of OEM partnerships. Among these new partners are Ositis, Stalker, Telnet Media and Preventon.
A short selection of Sophos’s UK customers includes: Bank of England, BBC, GlaxoSmithKline, Interbrew, Marks & Spencer, Orange, Oxford University, Royal Air Force, Sainsbury’s, Siemens, Toshiba, WWF and Xerox Corporation.
*IDC Bulletin 29635R – Worldwide Secure Content Management Forecast Update and Competitive Vendor Shares, 2002-2007.
About Sophos:
Sophos is one of the world’s largest specialist developers of anti-virus software. Headquartered in the UK, its products are sold and supported through a global network of subsidiaries and partners in more than 150 countries. Sophos solutions are specifically designed to protect businesses and organisations from virus attack. The company’s products are widely deployed by large corporations, banks and governments. For further information, please visit www.sophos.com