Computacenter celebrates 30th birthday with strong results

Computacenter grew sales by 10.7 per cent in 2010 to £2.68bn and managed to increase adjusted profits by 21.8 per cent to £66.1m.

Earnings per share are up 19.1 per cent to 33 pence.

Mike Norris, chief executive at Computacenter, said the last two years had shown the company identifying and moving into more profitable markets. He said end user demand for new technology was pushing spending in corporate IT, a process helped by economic improvements "within our customers' markets". Norris said he was increasingly confident that Computacenter could outperform the market.

Sales in the UK, when the impact of ending trade distribution is stripped out, grew 10.8 per cent in 2010 to £1.27bn thanks to improvements in corporate spending. The reseller said spending was fairly steady throughout the year with no fourth quarter spike or impact from VAT increases.

UK profit grew 14.5 per cent to £43.3m thanks to revenue growth and some improvement in margins for services. Computacenter celebrated some decent service contract wins in the year – a £10m deal with Gatwick Airport and a five-year support deal with Waitrose.

Computacenter's full result statement is here. ®