Computacenter suffers double-digit drop in UK sales

Strong growth in Germany and France spares channel bellwether's blushes

Computacenter claims it is on track to meet its annual targets despite posting another double-digit UK revenue drop.

The channel bellwether saw UK sales fall by 15 per cent to £234m in the third quarter year on year, in line with the 16 per cent drop logged in its first half.

However, strong growth in Germany – which is now its largest territory – and France, ensured Computacenter's total revenues rose five per cent to £652m during the quarter. Excluding acquisitions – most notably French VAR Top Info – group revenue dropped by one per cent.

UK product sales slipped by 20 per cent to £234m in the third quarter, the London-listed firm said in an interim management statement. Just as in the first half, Computacenter blamed this on a shift in spending profiles of particular large customers.

Services sales from Computacenter's home territory also fell – by six per cent. It attributed this to a drop in professional services revenue around cabling, due to a slowdown in large construction projects.

German revenue grew by 19 per cent to €339m year on year, while French sales powered up by 28 per cent to €126m.

The corporate resell and services kingpin – which is headed up by Mike Norris (pictured) – said it is on track to deliver a performance in line with its expectations for the year as a whole.

"While there are clearly no certainties, we are confident that 2011 will prove to be the most successful year in Computacenter's journey by delivering record growth rates in our contractual services business that will underpin growth in the years ahead," it stated.