Proact positive despite profit problems

Swedish storage integrator sees cloud services boost and insists customers are optimistic despite profit plummeting

Storage reseller Proact remains upbeat despite its sales and profits for the third quarter plummeting.

According to its interim report for the three months to 30 September, profit before tax at Proact slumped annually by 17 per cent to SEK 13.2m (£1.28m) on sales which fell nine per cent to SEK 444.7m (£43.1m).

Figures were similarly downbeat for its nine-month performance which saw profit before tax slip more than half – 53 per cent – to SEK 20.7m. Sales for the nine-month period dropped nine per cent to SEK 1.57bn annually.

Martin Ödman, Proact's managing director, put the sales slump down "mainly to a still-cautious market in which new investments in system solutions are being postponed".

He added that the company is failing to meet its profitability targets – five per cent profit before tax margin – in the second half of the year, but remained upbeat on the company's future.

"I had the privilege of meeting many existing and potential new customers and discussing their outlook on the future [and] I can confirm that their outlook... is very much in line with our company's strategy," he said.

"Among other things, this means that we will be seeing an increasing demand for a combination of products and services, or just services, such as different kinds of cloud services."

For its third quarter, Proact's cloud services sales jumped 27 per cent compared to the same period last year and the firm signed new long-term deals worth SEK 43m too.

Regionally, most of Proact's sales for the first nine months of the year – SEK 842m – came from the Nordics, but the region posted an 11.7 per cent slump in revenue when compared to the same period last year. The UK's sales dropped 9.5 per cent in Q3 to SEK 391m and its Benelux and Spain division was the only one to grow annually in the quarter – up 2.83 per cent. Its Eastern division's sales shrank 26.8 per cent to just SEK 82m.

Ödman said his company is seeing improved profits before tax across all its regional business units except its Eastern arm due to what he described as adverse developments in its Czech business.