Computacenter sales boosted by big deal

Reseller Computacenter made sales of £616m in the first quarter of the year, up eight per cent on the same period last year.

The dealer said growth was pushed by product sales in the UK jumping more than 20 per cent. Much of this was due to one large project, which is not ongoing. But even removing this from the figures UK product sales grew by more than ten per cent - and this has been maintained in the second quarter so far.

Services revenue grew by two per cent in the first quarter. Germany had a slow start to the year but France did much better - service revenues there grew by 13 per cent and product revenue by seven per cent.

Computacenter ended the quarter with net cash of £89m, helped by an extended credit line of £30m with one vendor.

The company said: "After a challenging 2009 for our product business, we saw a strong rebound in Q1 2010, particularly in the UK. Whilst it is not certain that these growth rates can be maintained throughout the year, the signs are encouraging."

The full statement is here. ®