Northamber shows half-yearly upturn

Northamber has raised its interim dividend following a rise in half-yearly profit for the year ended 31 December 1998.

The distributor, which posted its results last week, announced that pre-tax profit in the six months ended 31 December had dropped slightly to #4.44 million, following an exceptional charge of #277,000 for a property write-down. Profit for the same period last year was #4.3 million. Northamber has raised its interim dividend by 25 per cent.

The result before the charge - #4.72 million - represents a rise of 10.8 per cent on last year. Operating margin increased to 3.44 per cent from last year's three per cent. The healthy results reflected a greater confidence than in the same period last year.

Announcing results for the six months ended December 1998, Northamber made an increase in bad debt provision.

David Phillips, chairman of Northamber, told PC Dealer: 'It's a good market at the moment.' In a prepared statement, he said he believed the launch of the forthcoming Pentium III would create further growth. He added that the results vindicated Northamber's shift towards higher margin product sales, which initially led to a slowdown in sales.

Northamber has announced the appointment of Peter Fisher as non-executive director. Fisher was a joint founder of Skillsgroup (formerly P&P). Phillips said: 'Peter brings 20 years' experience. Between the board, we have more than 70 years of channel experience.'