SCH guides Interface into profit

Facing a bright future: SCH's input has turned Interface around

In its recently published yearly results, distributor Interface Solutions has rev­ealed that the clout of parent company SCH will return it to profitability this year.

The results, filed last month, show that Interface turned over £149.5m in the 15 months to 31 March 2009, with net losses of £6.3m. In the first three months of 2009, net debt of £15.1m disappeared, leaving the distributor with £600,000 cash.

The firm was bought by channel behemoth SCH in July 2008 and Interface says it banked a £1.4m profit in the post-acquisition period.

“The turnaround from pre-acquisition loss to post-acquisition profit has been achieved through the elimination of duplicated cost and the leveraging of core functions within the SCH group,” said the directors’ report.

“The company has continued its profitable performance during the financial year to 31 March 2010.”

Interface’s staff make-up has changed, with more than 50 sales staff now employed, up from 41 at the end of 2007.

But in 2008/9, administrative staff numbers almost halved to 36. Engineers fell from 10 to five. Overall, average monthly employee numbers declined from 119 to 92.
Interface business unit director Rob Tomlin claimed that his firm has gone “from strength to strength”.

“Interface and its partners have benefited from SCH’s stronger financial, logistics and services capabilities,” he said. “This has resulted in an increase in market share with core vendor partners IBM and Lenovo.”