Computacenter to continue growing its services and infrastructure business
But the reseller admits that it still has work to do in Europe
Infrastructure and services giant Computacenter plans to continue growing both its services and infrastructure business, but has admitted it still has work to do in Europe.
As revealed by CRN Online (CRN, 12 September), the VAR last week released its first-half 2006 results which showed that group turnover was slightly down on 2005 at £1.11bn compared with £1.15bn, but pre-tax profit soared by 76.7 per cent to £14.5m compared with £8.2m in 2005.
The UK performed well on all fronts, with both the services and product divisions contributing to a 10.3 per cent growth in profit to £16.4m.
In Germany the firm saw an operating profit of £500,000 compared with a loss of £1.5m in 2005, while turnover at Computacenter France grew to £141.7m. Operating loss in the region fell slightly to £5.4m.
Speaking to CRN, Mike Norris, chief executive of Computacenter, said: “Everything is going according to plan and we have clearly made a lot of progress over the past year. Turnover is flat, but that is not helped by product price declines.
“We will move more towards services, particularly managed services, but we are still looking to grow the product business.”
Norris admitted that France is “performing badly” compared with the UK and said that Computacenter has plans to “make [the region’s] financial performance better”. But he declined to reveal further details.
Kate Hanaghan, analyst at Ovum, said: “Computacenter is generally moving in the right direction, but our concern remains the timescale. Whether it can transform itself before the market – and its competitors – get the better of it is crucial.”