VAR posts 10 per cent sales jump amid booming client demand for greener IT infrastructures

Reseller Computerland has pointed to soaring demand for server consolidation projects as its fiscal first-half revenues jumped 10 per cent year-on-year.

The Alternative Investment Market-listed firm raked in record pre-tax profits of £1.45m on turnover of £33.9m for the six months to 31 October.

Graham Gilbert, chairman of Computerland, admitted its hardware maintenance unit had encountered set-backs during the period, but said all other divisions are firing on all cylinders.

“I am delighted to report that our managed services, project services and product supply businesses all performed strongly during the first 6 months of our financial year,” he said.

“Clients are looking at ways to reduce their ’carbon footprint’ and our server consolidation expertise has enabled them to achieve this goal by reducing the number of servers, and hence electricity consumed, in their businesses. Heightened environmental awareness and rising power costs are likely to create an increasing demand for our skills in this area.”

Gilbert said Computerland’s hardware maintenance business had been hit by a number of “operational issues” following a recent system software migration.

“As a result we implemented a recovery plan that led to a significant improvement in our performance during the second quarter. Our new systems are now enabling us to deliver our clients a service of the very highest quality and we expect the financial performance of this business unit to continue to improve,” he reasoned.

Despite the credit crunch, Gilbert said trading in November had been in line with expectations and that he is confident of “achieving a satisfactory outcome for the year”.