Computacenter eyeing vast opportunities

Computacenter has provided investors with some cheer and indicated that when it shares its full year results in March they are set to be some of the best in its history.

The channel giant issued a pre-close trading statement this morning that continued the upbeat theme of the official notices it has made about its business in fiscal 2019.

Revenue for the Group increased by 16% and when recent acquisitions in the US and Netherlands were excluded the organic growth was up by 3%.

The UK saw revenues remain "broadly flat," according to the statement, but the gross profit contribution from the region was a record performance and there was decent margin growth in technology sourcing and services.

Last year was also the most successful for the firm's French business, with it making its largest profit contribution to the Group so far, and work continues on that side of the Channel to increase the size of the customer base. Despite economic problems in Germany the business continued to grow and deliver positive results.

Moves into the Netherlands are also contributing to the bottom line and the hope is that profits will grow with the business being integrated into the ERP and management system from the start of November. Belgium and Switzerland were also meeting expectations.

The US business has been evolving over the past 15 months and there were signs that after a disappointing H1 things had rallied in the second half. The expectations are that when the business is fully integrated, and the offering expanded, some of the volatility in the operations will be removed.

"2019 has been one of the most successful years in Computacenter's history. Not only have we recorded our best ever revenue, profit, earnings per share and cash generation from ongoing operations, but we have increased our profitability by the largest absolute amount ever," the trading statement explained.

A record-breaking year is always going to be a hard act to follow but Computacenter;s trading statement set an optimistic tone about the prospects for 2020.

"The results of 2019 set a high bar for the business as we go into 2020. However, we go into the year with confidence, helped by the strong momentum within the Group and the broader market. We have multiple growth drivers. Geographically, we have expanded our footprint; technologically, we continue to develop our capability in areas such as Networking, Security and Cloud; and in Services, as we continue our long-term investment in the development of our portfolio of propositions," the firm stated.

"As we continue to grow Computacenter on multiple fronts, it is obviously not without risk, but we believe our opportunities are vast," it added.