Bell pleased with Europe

Distributor says its European performance improved during the year as it unveils preliminary results

Storage distributor Bell Micro pointed to “strong growth” in Europe as it announced preliminary fourth quarter and full-year revenues.

The US-based outfit expects to post a fourth quarter turnover of between $1.08 and $1.1bn, up 8 to 10 per cent annually. Sales for the full year are expected to hit around $4.05bn – a 19 per cent rise, or 9 per cent without the contribution of recent acquisition ProSys.

European revenues leapt 13 per cent annually and 12 per cent sequentially, owing to strong peripherals sales and the weak dollar. European revenues from disk drives and other peripherals were up 16 per cent annually, while solution product revenues were up a more modest 11 per cent year-on-year.

The distributor was unable to provide further guidance due to its ongoing internal options investigation.

Donald Bell, chief executive of Bell, said in a statement that he was “very pleased” with the firm’s "improvement" in Europe throughout the year.

“We are pleased with our quarterly results and our ability to generate record quarterly and full year revenue for the Company. We generated growth across all geographic regions and also in both our Solutions, and Components and Peripherals product categories during the fourth quarter and year,” he added.