A mixed set of results from two leading VARs this morning, with Computacenter seeing sales edging up, but profits down for the full year, and Bytes Technology Group experiencing solid growth on both fronts.
For the 12 months ended 28 February, 2025, Bytes delivered double-digit growth for gross invoiced income, gross profit, and operating profit.
Gross invoiced income exceeded £2 billion for the first time, and operating profit grew in the “mid-to-high-teens”, according to a trading statement, “underscoring continued momentum”.
There was “acceleration” in gross profit growth in the second half, which was “balanced” across both corporate and public sector clients, to deliver full-year growth of around 12%.
The results include two full months of trading under the recently updated Microsoft incentive plan, which is “embedded” into Bytes’ strategic growth plans. “We are well positioned to unlock the growth opportunities associated with this change, backed by our long track record of successfully adapting to such shifts in our vendor programmes,” the firm added.
The full results will be shared in May. Over at the larger Computacenter, it wasn’t so consistent.
The full group sales for the year ending 31 December, 2024, were up 0.6% to £6.96 billion, but the operating profit fell 11.5% to £237.9m. And the profit before tax slumped 10.1% to £244.6m.
Mike Norris, chief executive officer at Computacenter, maintained: “We delivered a solid performance in 2024 as a whole in the context of a tough first half comparative, and a more challenging IT market. Encouragingly, the second half was the most profitable in our history and was derived from our highest number of major customers.”
He added: “We executed well in North America, achieving another record year, while Germany performed robustly. Technology Sourcing momentum improved through the year, and we were particularly pleased with Professional Service's double-digit growth.”
Despite the falling profits, the total dividend for shareholders increased by 1% to 70.7p.
