C2000: There is too much negativity out there

Distributor says it is time people looked beyond the headlines and realised that business is brisk - at least in Europe

Computer 2000 (C2000) has hit out at what it sees as a culture of negativity surrounding recent press coverage of the big distributors' results.

The UK's largest distributor has accused some market commentators of unnecessary doom-mongering, stressing that the sales of its parent company – Tech Data – are growing handsomely in Europe.

Andy Dow, marketing director at C2000, told ChannelWeb: "There is too much negativity around distribution and the health of the channel.

"If you look into the results of the large distributors, the European results are generally not that bad and there are actually some positive signs of good growth in Europe."

Does Dow have a point?

Tech Data grabbed the headlines for the wrong reasons this week as its share price was knocked by disappointing results for its Q2 to 31 July. Both sales and profits fell globally, as the broadliner battled against intense price pressure and a weakening euro.

Having said that, Tech Data's European operations generated the region's highest Q2 sales and profits in its history, in local currencies. In euros, revenue leapt by 12 per cent, allowing for a recent change Tech Data has made to how it presents vendor warranty services. And European profit margins also improved year on year.

Dow (pictured) said Tech Data was enjoying growth across each of its Collection of Specialist units, with public sector and retail among the hotspots.

And Tech Data is not the only big broadliner to be enjoying growth in Europe, at least in local currencies.

Its closest like-for-like rival, Ingram Micro, posted flat global sales of $8.78bn (£5.53bn) in its Q2 to 30 June. While European sales fell by seven per cent in dollars, they were up by about three per cent in local currencies.

Similarly, Arrow endured a tough Q2 as global sales fell seven per cent to $5.15bn and profits tumbled by 27 per cent as its components business struggled. But digging deeper, Arrow's European enterprise business actually grew by 12 per cent in local currencies.

Dow concluded his diatribe: "Let's not get hung up on the state of the market – there is some good news out there."