Ingram and Avnet in distribution results duel

"Strong" UK growth for Ingram Micro

The last three months have proved a mixed bag for global IT distribution as Avnet and Ingram Micro reveal contrasting quarterly results.

Avnet saw annual growth in both its Q1 sales and GAAP net profit, while at Ingram, both figures shrank over the same period, which was its third quarter.

For the three months to 3 October, Avnet's GAAP net profit rose 1.8 per cent annually to $130.3m (£84.9m) on sales which over the same period crept up 1.9 per cent to $7bn.

It was a different story at Ingram, as sales slumped six per cent to $10.5bn in its third quarter, which also ended 3 October. Net profit over the same period fell 10 per cent annually to $65m. In constant currency, sales actually grew two per cent, Ingram said.

In Europe, Ingram's sales fell eight per cent annually to $2.8bn, but it said the UK was "strong".

"Demand in Germany - the largest regional contributor - improved in Q3, with strength from corporate resellers in categories including networking, data capture point-of-sale and mobility," said Ingram's chief financial officer William Humes.

"France and the UK also contributed strong growth and Italy and Spain delivered double-digit growth supported by an uptick in advanced solution sales in both countries and strong mobility sales in Italy."

Ingram's cloud business doubled in Q3 in constant currency following the expansion of its Cloud Marketplace offering, which is an ecosystem for cloud buyers and sellers.

EMEA was also a strong performer for Avnet.

Its CEO Rick Hamada said: "Our team delivered a strong Q1 performance starting with revenues at the high end of our expectations for both operating groups led by growth in our EMEA region.

"In constant currency, both EM [Electronics Marketing] and TS [Technology Solutions] EMEA increased revenue over 15 per cent year over year."