Gainward Europe, the European sales and marketing organization of Gainward Ltd., Taiwan, a manufacturer of graphics cards, reported that revenue grew in Europe in the first 8 months of FY2002 (calendar year) by over 53% from $15.700.000 to $24.100.000 compared to the same period in 2001. Earnings before tax were up by 234% to $563.000. In FY2002 Gainward Europe GmbH expects to grow revenue by 70% to in excess of €50.000.000. In September 2002, for the first time in the company history, Gainward’s European revenue will exceed $5.000.000.

Due to Gainward’s success that generates pretty strong demand on retail shelves all over Europe, NVIDIA have appointed Gainward a “European Retail Partner” to show the strong partnership between the two companies in terms of product development and channel marketing. Well, nothing surprising in this information, so to say. Hercules, who is one of the most powerful and well-known retailers in Europe, now sells graphics cards powered by GPUs from ATI Technologies. ELSA ceased to exist, Creative Labs is not as big, as it used to be a couple of years ago, moreover, there are a lot of companies that entered the market quite recently, hence, has not yet managed to maintain strong positions on the market. As a result, basically, Gainward seems to be the most important NVIDIA based graphics card vendor in Europe.

Nothing is said about Gainward’s market share on the continent, by the way. In some countries these graphics cards are not widely-spread, while in the others this company is well-known and respected for their products.