After struggling for years in the IT market, Samsung Australia is now reaping the benefits of a major restructure, with the company now reaching revenues of $18.5 million dollars a month compared to $6 million a year ago.

Under the leadership of former BenQ Australia Vice President Phil Newton, Samsung Australia has become #1 in the monitor display market. It has also lifted sales of its commercial display screens by 40 per cent to snare the #1 slot ahead of Panasonic, Sony and LG. Samsung is also the #1 vendor in the multi-function laser printer market.

After getting out of the notebook market two years ago, Samsung is now struggling to keep up with demand, with the company earlier today launching a new range of notebooks, including several models with 12-hour battery life and built-in Quad Band 3G Wi Fi capabilities.

According to Newton, both Telstra and Vodafone are now ranging their notebooks, with Optus tipped to offer a Samsung bundle next month.

Also selling their notebooks are retailers JB Hi-Fi, The Good Guys and Bing Lee.

According to Newton, 35 per cent of Samsung notebook sales are coming from telecommunication carriers, 45 per cent via retailers and 20 per cent via the channel serviced by Synnex and Ingram Micro.

“Next month we will have our first $20 million month, and I am confident that with the introduction of new Samsung IT products and the expansion of our partners, we can grow our monthly sales significantly,” said Newton.

Late yesterday, Samsung was hosting several major resellers, including senior executives from Harvey Norman, which currently doesn’t sell Samsung notebooks. Samsung has also launched a new range of notebooks, which Newton is confident will help Samsung grow revenues from this category.

“Today we have an excellent team in place at Samsung, as well as a strong range of products that keep just getting better and better. We have big advantages in that we manufacturer a lot of our components like storage, and we have excellent related product categories like TV’s and mobile phones. For example, with the carriers, we are now selling both mobile phones and notebooks and this helps. With the retailers, we are selling Samsung TVs, and IT products including notebooks, printers and display screens.

“When I came on board we had 1 per cent of the commercial display market, today we have over 40 per cent,” Newton said.

According to Mark Deere Jones, General Manager of Commercial Display at Panasonic, “Samsung has definitely become a threat.”

“They have not only benefited from a restructure, but the exit of TV brands like NEC, Pioneer, Hitachi and Philips from the commercial display market. Both Samsung and Panasonic have also taken market share away from both Sony and LG in this market,” he said.

In the monitor display market, Samsung is #1 in the consumer market, with Newton claiming that he is now shifting 40,000 units a month.