Computacenter makes 17th successive year of profit and growth

Computacenter, the UK's largest reseller, experienced a modest increase in product sales, but offset this by generating more service led deals.

In the year ending 31 December 1999, the reseller saw turnover increase by 11 per cent to £1.76bn, compared with £1.59bn for the same period in 1998. Pre-tax profit jumped 16 per cent to £75.1m, from £64.6m in 1998.

According to Computacenter chairman Philip Hulme, the 1999 figures were affected by a slowdown in the run up to year 2000. Product sales dropped off towards the end of the year, he said.

Hulme said: "In our interim results we said that the indications were that demand would slow, but the effect would be modest. I am pleased to report that this was the case, although the overall impact of Year 2000 was that Computacenter's growth in turnover in 1999 was as a whole was less than we enjoyed in recent years."

While the company declined to break down the division between product and service sales, Hulme claimed that more than half of Computacenter's staff are now employed in its services business. Mike Norris, chief executive of Computacenter, estimated that the firm's services revenue grew by 32 per cent.

He said: "1999 saw a continued decline in PC prices across the group. We welcome the long-term decline in hardware prices as it opens up new applications for distributed IT - enabling our customers to increase their investment in new technology, so fuelling demand for the group's services."

International sales outside of the UK grew 17 per cent with revenue coming from France, Germany and Belguim. The UK generates 83 per cent of the group's sales.