Computers Unlimited beats slowdown

Bucking the trend of poor economic results and forecasts from its broadline rivals, specialist distributor Computers Unlimited has announced a 52 per cent increase in internet software sales for its unaudited year ended 30 April.

Bucking the trend of poor economic results and forecasts from its broadline rivals, specialist distributor Computers Unlimited (CU) has announced a 52 per cent increase in internet software sales for its unaudited year ended 30 April.

With a current annual turnover of £66m, CU's roots lie in the QuarkXPress and Mac-based print/publishing sector. As Adobe's largest distributor of Photoshop and as a key Quark distributor, CU still sees this professional creative arena as a core market for the company.

However, it also sees the web publishing and creation market as a natural fit and as complementary to its future business, according to sales director Charles Kennard. "We are covering both bases for print and web publishing," he said.

The firm is also branching into internet communications software, such as RedRock's TextNow! SMS product, to bolster its web offerings.

Chris Jones, a senior analyst at Canalys.com, said the analyst has seen some "pockets of growth" for specialist distributors when compared with its broadline rivals. "If there is going to be any slowdown, it is going to be in the hardware and upgrades market," he pointed out.

For example, Jones believes that companies will delay operating system upgrades, such as installing Windows 2000.

However, he said they would be more willing to pay for specialist or back-end software that 'upgrades' productivity and profitability, and gives innovative competitive advantage. Such packages include TextNow!, he said.

"There are also decent margins around the software CU supplies," Jones added.