Computacenter makes strides in Europe
Positive 2003 financial results boost European expansion efforts
Computacenter is edging closer to its goal of becoming a pan-European IT products and service provider after posting positive 2003 financial results.
The corporate infrastructure and services VAR recorded almost 30 per cent growth in turnover for 2003, which reached £2.48bn, and posted an 18 per cent increase in profit of £65.2m, compared with £55.1m in 2002.
However, if acquisitions in Germany and Austria in 2003 are taken out of the equation, group turnover fell by 6.7 per cent to £1.8bn.
Georgina O'Toole, analyst at Ovum Holway, said the reseller wanted to build its services business and expand in Europe and had gone a long way towards achieving this.
The company now has a presence in Germany, France, Austria, Belgium and Luxembourg as well as the UK.
"In 2002, 83 per cent of its revenues came from the UK, but only 59 per cent did last year," said O'Toole.
Mike Norris, chief executive of Computacenter, told CRN that demand is on the increase. "The market is getting a lot better and we are confident we will grow this year," he said.
Growth will come through technical services and software upgrades in the UK, Norris added. "People are upgrading to XP in vast numbers and a lot of this is pull-through from our services business," he said.
Computacenter has become the biggest VAR in Europe, over the past few years. But Norris is not obsessed with size.
"I want to improve the bottom line. I am not looking to grow revenue because it doesn't pay the mortgage," he said.