Computacenter UK recovery continues

UK grows slower than other regions, but grows nonetheless

Computacenter's UK revival continued in Q3 with revenue up eight per cent year-on-year to £335m, the reseller and services beast said in a trading update.

Overall the group saw revenue jump 27 per cent to £931m, which with Germany once again the standout performer.

Revenue in the German business was up 26 per cent to £453m, while France's sales pogoed 34 per cent to £127m.

Of the UK business, Computacenter said: "Whilst the UK is growing slightly slower than the group as a whole, the results in the third quarter clearly demonstrate an improved performance…"

Germany continues to be the golden child, growing at a faster rate in Q3 than it had done in the first half of the year.

Computacenter shares were up as much as 4.5 per cent today.

"The momentum we have experienced across the group, particularly in Germany, in the first half of the year has been maintained if not improved during the third quarter of 2017," Computacenter said.

"Whilst the fourth quarter is our most difficult comparison to 2016 of any quarter in the year, we remain on track for a record performance.

"New technologies, digitalisation and our customers' appetite to invest is as buoyant as we can remember, which is obviously driving our professional services and supply chain services.

"However, as noted in our 2016 final results, it is also true to say our target market's desire to reduce operating costs, and therefore the cost of running their IT, has intensified which is eroding our contractual services base, thus increasing the need to invest in productivity and innovation to remain competitive."

Computacenter announced a shuffling of its top execs earlier this month, with previous UK boss Kevin James taking the chief commercial officer role and Neil Hall stepping into his shoes.