Multiple ComputerLand franchise-holder Computergroup Plc announced yesterday that it had strengthened its London division with the acquisition of Computerland’s Docklands and City of London franchises. The four year old Salford-based group, which prefers to describe the deal as a merger, explained that after pooling resources, payment had effectively taken place through the issue to directors of the franchises an unspecified number of Computergroup shares. The two directors will also sit on the main Computergroup board. Computergroup already owns Computerland franchises in Leeds, Birmingham, Manchester, Salford, Heathrow Airport, Marble Arch and Holborn, and established new Computerland outlets in Milton Keynes and Bradford earlier this year. It also made great play of its 77 continental European ComputerLand franchise partners. With plans to seek a Stock Exchange listing high on next year’s agenda, pressure to join the group will now almost certainly be brought to bear on the remaining nine independent Computerland sites scattered throughout the UK. Meanwhile Computergroup is steaming ahead with plans to transform itself from a micro systems integrator to a systems services company; it currently claims that its support team is one and a half times the size of its sales force, and expects to increase its headcount to 300 from 230 by the end of the year, bringing the support to sales ratio to an unrivalled two-to-one. The group recently announced turnover for the first six months of the year up 88% to UKP8.6m, and is now looking for consolidated sales for the year to be in the region of UKP25m.
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