Computacenter hails sixth year of growth

Infrastructure and services giant sees an improving performance from Germany and France, with demand still "weaker" in the UK

Computacenter is celebrating its sixth consecutive year of profit growth after releasing its 2011 full-year financials, driven by an uptick in business in Germany and France.

The infrastructure and services giant saw group revenue increase 6.6 per cent to £2.85bn, up from £2.68bn in 2010, with pre-tax profit increasing 10.4 per cent to £72.1m, compared with £65.4m the previous year. In addition, the firm has net cash of £113.6m, while it had £111m in 2010.

Germany and France - which, along with Belgium, account for 49 per cent of group profit, grown from 33 per cent in 2010 - saw strong revenue and profit growth as IT infrastructure upgrades continue. This served as an offset for "weaker" supply chain demand in the UK.

The firm claimed its acquisitions of Top Info, HSD and Damax - at a cost of £25m - have consolidated and enhanced its geographic footprint and added new services capabilities.

Group services contracts grew six per cent to a record £563.6m, compared with £531.9m in 2010. The firm also has a strong contract pipeline, as several major contracts were secured towards the end of the year and have yet to contribute.

Mike Norris, chief executive of Computacenter, said: "While this outcome in itself represents a strong performance, it is worth noting that this is the sixth consecutive year that Computacenter has delivered double-digit profit growth.

"We are delighted with the strong customer demand for our service offerings, which we confidently believe enable them to reduce their operating costs in the long term. Our new business pipeline for 2012 looks as exciting, if not more so, than what we achieved in 2011.

"The board believes that, despite the current economic climate, there would need to be further deterioration in this environment for its expectations not to be met this year, and the board is confident of achieving further progress during 2012. The agenda we have set ourselves is ambitious and not without risk, but we believe that the combination of strong customer demand, our operational track record, and the strength of our balance sheet all bode well for Computacenter's aspiration of delivering sustainable EPS growth."