Morse drops out of school

Morse said the education sector is too resource intensive

Morse is pulling out of the education sector, citing the difficulty of winning projects in the resource-intensive market.

In its interim results, the VAR revealed it made the whole of its Morse in Education management and sales team redundant in January.

The unit generated a “disappointing” £0.8m in sales in Morse’s six months to the end of December, albeit from a standing start. Its South Tyneside and Gateshead Building Schools for the Future project will now be managed as a stand-alone project.

Morse’s total sales for the period from continuing operations fell from £114.7m to £107.5m, while pre-tax profit from before exceptionals more than halved to £2.2m.

The VAR has also unveiled Mike Phillips as its chief executive officer. As a result of the appointment Morse is searching for a new chief financial officer and current executive chairman Kevin Loosemore will revert to the post of non-executive chairman.

In July 2008 Morse split itself into five business units: Infrastructure Services & Technology – UK; Infrastructure Services & Technology – Spain; Infrastructure Services & Technology – Ireland; Business Applications Services; and Investment Management Consulting.

Morse announced that it has now disposed of its Investment and Management Consulting unit, meaning it now has just four divisions.

Loosemore said its UK and European business had experienced contrasting fortunes during the period.

“Our UK based businesses have made significant improvements in their cost base whilst the European based businesses, particularly Spain, have further restructuring to do,” he said.

“Whilst we expected the market for IT services and technology to remain difficult, we did not fully anticipate the extent to which the credit crunch would impact businesses globally.”