Compel blames Y2K sales slowdown

Compel yesterday saw interim profits slump by almost 40 per cent, but expects customer spending to pick up in the first half of this year. The reseller blamed a Y2K sales slowdown as pre-tax profits slipped to £3 million for the six months ended 31 December 1999 in line with expectations. This compared to almost £5 million the previous year. Sales rose to £136 million against £121 million. "We are already seeing evidence of an upturn following the year 2000 date change and we are confident that expenditure levels in our customer base will increase materially during the first half of 2000," said Neville Davis, Compel's chairman and CEO. "The Group has recently seen a strong flow of substantial new contract wins with FTSE 100 companies." Drew Cullen writes: This is a peculiar sort of millennium sales lockdown: Compel sales actually rose 12 per cent during this reporting period (compared with 1998). The £1.9 million profit downturn looks more like the company got the sales mix wrong (too much product, not enough services), or a big one-off leap in expenses. ®