Avnet posts positive start to 2008

Acquisition hungry distributor sees profit rocket 12 per cent year-on-year

Distribution giant Avnet is confident its recent acquisitions will prove lucrative after seeing turnover increase 12 per cent for its first quarter 2008.

The distributor has snapped up the IT Solutions storage networking division of Acal, and the European IBM and HP business unit of Magirus.

For the three months ended 29 September, turnover stood at $4.10bn, with profit standing at $105.5m, compared with $64.1m in the first quarter 2007.

Roy Vallee, chief executive of Avnet, said: “Once again, our highly diversified revenue base contributed to our solid performance as better than expected growth from the Asia region offset weaker sales in the Americas. While year-over-year organic revenue growth slowed to 2.3 per cent this quarter, positive contributions from acquisitions contributed to continued year over year improvement in key quarterly financial metrics.

“With another $700-plus million of annual revenue from acquisitions completed or announced in the current quarter, our acquisition strategy continues to broaden our revenue base, create cross selling opportunities and add further operating leverage to our business model going forward,” he said.