Norris celebrates service success

Computacenter chief hails growth of services following first quarter trading statement

Mike Norris

Computacenter chief executive Mike Norris has told CRN he wished he had exited the commodity PC and print distribution market earlier, after the company’s services revenue rocketed during the first quarter of 2009.

The corporate reseller giant said in an interim management statement that it had cash reserves of about £52m compared with a net debt of £17.2m in the same quarter of 2008.

Despite group revenue decreasing by one per cent for the quarter, the services side of the business bucked the trend, increasing six per cent in the UK, 22 per cent in Germany and 25 per cent in France.

“We are very pleased,” said Norris. “The only criticism that could be levelled at us is about trade distribution ­ we could have made the decision quicker. But it is easy to say that in hindsight.

“Our services marketplace is buoyant, as more customers turn to us to save them money. We have had a much better quarter in the UK this year than last year and the French and German business has beaten last year’s performance.”

Norris also revealed that the company’s £15m cost reduction plans were on track and that job cuts were “predominantly” over.

“We are going through a process with some people in the second quarter, but we are talking a couple of handfuls,” he said.

Robert May, managing director of VAR Ramsac, said: “There is so much business out there because people are looking at how they can get efficiencies in their business. We are busier than ever.”