Shares in Computacenter slipped as much as 5% in the opening minutes of trade in London after the technology and services provider bemoaned disappointing sales in the UK and order backlogs in the US.
The Hertfordshire-based business, which offers tech infrastructure and IT strategy services, reported a 11.6% decline in revenue in the first six months of the year to £3.1 billion, while pre-tax profits fell 31.6% to £84 million.
Sales in the UK were especially weak, down by more than a fifth to £542 million, while adjusted operating profit was almost halved to £13.4 million.
CEO Mike Norris said: “Our performance in the first half largely reflected the expected normalisation of Technology Sourcing volumes against an exceptionally strong comparative.
“Our UK performance remains disappointing with the market for hardware proving weaker than anticipated at the start of the year [while] current market conditions have outweighed the improvements we have made in how we approach the UK market.
“The H1 result was also impacted by the timing of fulfilment for certain large orders in North America, which moved into H2 and are now being completed.”
But the company said it expected “stronger momentum” in the second half of the year, underpinned by the size of its committed product order backlog and wider pipeline of opportunities.
“While we are mindful of the backdrop of continuing geopolitical and macro uncertainty across our markets, we continue to expect to make progress,” Norris said, as the company increased its interim dividend by 3.1% to 23.3p.
Signs of softening demand in the UK echo the experiences of the country’s biggest IT equipment supplier, Westcoast, which in accounts published last month warned: “Demand for IT products and Westcoast services are currently subdued as the weight of inflation and high costs of capital still burden most businesses, causing delays in IT equipment refreshes and hardware infrastructure upgrades.”
