Mike Norris: A bolt-on from the blue

Computacenter's chief executive explains his strategy for bolt-on acquisitions as firm celebrates six years of consecutive growth

Small, bolt-on acquisitions will form part of Computacenter’s growth plans going forward, chief executive Mike Norris has revealed.

Speaking to ChannelWeb in the wake of the Infrastructure and services giant’s FY 2011 results, the big cheese said that despite being outperformed by Germany and France, the UK still had growth potential.

“We are very pleased as we have had six years of double-digit growth as a group,” Norris said. “The majority of service contracts we get [in the UK] now are second and third generation outsourced – so it is not necessarily the market growing.

“We have seen the market grow better in Germany that we have in the UK, but where it is going backwards is more a reflection of the industry that we are serving rather than the economy itself.”

He said for example companies such as manufacturing, pharmaceutical and chemical are still seeing growth in the UK, albeit not as much as Germany.

“We have investment banking in the UK, but it doesn’t exist in Germany,” he said. “There has been a down turn, but not necessarily all in financial services and investment banking – that is just part of UK revenue. Our services business remains strong.

“Macro economy or market conditions make no difference – it is about how you execute and perform against what business you have won that will determine how you perform in 2012. It is not about the market, it is about what we do. Performance is industry dependent rather than country dependent.”

Looking at Computacenter's UK performance over the past year, Norris pointed out that the rate of decline is reducing.

“Revenue lines for the UK declined around 20 per cent in Q1 (2011), 15 per cent in Q2, 10 per cent in Q3 and five per cent in Q4 – so the rate is reducing,” he said. “Come Q1 2012 we fully expect it to be flat."

In terms of the cloud – believed by many in the industry to be a gamechanger – Norris said it was definitely here, but said it has been ‘overplayed’ by a lot of people.

“For me the cloud is just an evolution,” he said. “It is just one of those things that is happening – more applications being held outside a corporate environment – do I think it is a big change? No I don’t, but it is here all the same.”

And looking forward, acquisition was definitely on the cards along with organic growth, he said, but he stressed it would be very targeted.

“We have made three acquisitions over the last year – in Switzerland, France and Germany – and that kind of small, but beautifully formed bolt-on is the kind I like.

“We will continue to make bolt-on acquisitions that fit, as they become available, but I don’t want anything big,” Norris said. “If you already have a tiger by the tail, why would you want another one?”