Computacenter yesterday issued an upbeat -ish trading statement for the first half of the year. Trading in the second quarter is described as subdued, with product sales falling back from Q1's modest pick up - so the market's not great. And Computacenter doesn't expect the market to pick up for the rest of the year.

But the reseller, Europe's biggest, says its service operations are doing well and cost management controls are bearing fruit. And interims for the six months to September 30, 2003 will be ahead of market expectations.

The company cites a big recent outsourcing win with Abbey National, worth £70m over five years, as evidence of strong performance.

Computacenter says its German acquisition GE CompuNet (now CC CompuNet) is restructuring well, with the "transfer of best practice from the UK... going to plan". ®