The German automated teller machine company Wincor Nixdorf AG is expanding its U.S. operations as it wins business from two rivals.
Wincor Nixdorf, of Paderborn, has hired 84 engineers in the past month, and Alan Walsh, the vice president of banking for Wincor Nixdorf USA, said it plans to hire an additional 100 workers in the next 90 days, mostly engineers.
"We want to show our customers that we are committed to this market," Walsh said in an interview.
The new workers will serve the company's services unit, which repairs and updates ATMs and other products it sells to banks.
Wincor Nixdorf USA is hiring as the company continues to pick up more business from JPMorgan Chase & Co., the nation's second-largest bank owner of ATMs with 15,038 machines at the end of September, and from Wells Fargo & Co., the No. 3 owner with 12,352.
The ATM networks of both banking companies have expanded significantly in size and geographic reach because of the continuing economic slump; Wells Fargo, of San Francisco, acquired Wachovia Corp. of Charlotte in December and JPMorgan Chase purchased the banking operations of the Seattle thrift Washington Mutual Inc. in September of last year.
By yearend, Wincor Nixdorf expects to have service operations in 36 states, focused on the East Coast, the Southeast, the Southwest, the West Coast and the Pacific Northwest.
Gil Luria, an analyst at Wedbush Securities in Los Angeles, said Wincor Nixdorf is capturing business from NCR Corp. and Diebold Inc., and needs to expand its service operations, which are "very small" compared with those of its two rivals.
Wincor Nixdorf is also developing a mixed-media ATM, which can accept cash and checks through a single deposit slot. Wells Fargo is testing the machine.
Wincor Nixdorf's expansion is in contrast to NCR, which said last month that it plans to cut 5% to 10% of its 26,000 employees after weak third-quarter results.
