Ingram Micro promises EMEA fight back

Ingram admitted sales have declined faster in the UK than anywhere else in EMEA, bar the Nordics

Ingram Micro has admitted its sales are declining faster in the UK and EMEA than its competitors' but has vowed to reverse that trend.

The world’s largest IT distributor saw global sales fall by 25 per cent year on year to $6.58bn in its second quarter to 4 July. EMEA sales nose-dived 32 per cent to $2.01bn as the distributor admitted the region had been the “hardest hit” by the recession.

Year-over-year sales in every EMEA country declined in local currencies, with the UK faring the worst outside of the Nordics – where Ingram recently exited volume distribution.

In a webcast, chief executive Greg Spierkel vowed to stage an EMEA fight back.

“While the economic environment has dampened demand in every country it is clear that our sales have declined more than the overall market. With much of our expense reduction efforts behind us, we intend to reverse this trend.”

Spierkel said Ingram planned to improve EMEA sales in a profitable way, “recapturing share while maintaining our focus on cost control and solid gross margins”. He intends to hone the firm's focus on emerging areas such as data capture after signing a partnership with vendor Intermec.

On a global basis, Ingram saw net profits more than halve to $25.3m compared with the same quarter last year.

Despite the dramatic drop in sales, EMEA remained in the black – posting operating profit of $10.2m – which the distributor attributed to cost reduction actions, pricing discipline and focus on a more profitable business mix.

Talking about Ingram’s global business, Spierkel offered a cautious assessment of the market going forward.

"While the demand picture is not deteriorating, we believe that the road to recovery will be protracted over a number of quarters as unemployment weighs on the confidence levels of consumers and small businesses,” he said.