Landis downplays its upturn

Job cuts may still be inevitable

European distributor Landis has reported positive half-year results but played down expectations of a recovery, suggesting that job cuts may be inevitable.

For the first half of this year, profit rose by three quarters to Eu12.5m (£76m) from Eu7.1m in the same period last year. Turnover grew by 54 per cent to Eu389m. However, minus Landis' acquisition of Citee and Data Connectivity last year, turnover rose by only 11 per cent.

Mike Watkins, managing director of Landis UK, said: "We had a very strong first quarter, but there was a substantial drop-off in April and the market has not recovered as we would expect. The major countries have been hit, but in the UK at least we should not need to make any job cuts beyond natural attrition."

A company statement read: "Expectations of market recovery have been further deferred. Generally, a recovery in the market is not expected before 2002. In view of the expected delay in recovery of the data and telecoms markets, Landis will adapt the personnel capacity further to this situation."

Landis currently employs about 3200 staff across Europe and the UK. Its results still compare favourably with those of other distributors, which have largely failed to improve on last year's figures. Last week, Tech Data saw profit down $13m (£8.9m) in its first fiscal quarter from $40.8m over the same period last year.

UK reseller ComputerLand has announced that first-quarter profit was up on last year, but turnover had fallen. The company, which does not have to release quarterly figures, confirmed that outsourcing, remote support and hardware support were the strongest areas, while product sales were down.

ComputerLand's announcement coincided with a move to new offices and signalled an upturn for the company, which released two profit warnings in 1999 and one last April.