Things aren’t looking too good for Electron House Plc, the components and systems distributor, with pre-tax profits for the six months to November 30 down 87% at UKP219,000, and net losses of UKP134,000, on sales that rose 5% to UKP60.5m. Chairman and managing director Robert Leigh attributes the reduced profitability to sales being lower than forecast and pressure on trading margins. He points out that the company has undergone restructuring during the period, in order to reduce expenses 50 jobs have been lost altogether, and working capital has been reduced – these measures were taken when Electron realised that the second quarter was going to fall short of target. The Eire subsidiary was closed in September – Electron decided it couldn’t afford to invest in it any more, because of the economic conditions which have hit the company hard. Excluding this, UKP287,000 has been spent on reorganising the company Bytech Systems has been merged with Bytech Peripherals into one division in Bracknell, Berkshire, and the Dublin-based computer distribution company, Bytron, has been closed. The net effect of restructuring has been a 12% reduction of planned overheads, but Leigh says the impact of this won’t become evident until the next half. In the UK, computer products and systems turned in pre-tax profits down 34% on last time at UKP1.3m, on sales up 9% at UKP38m. Electronic Components, by country, saw pre-tax profits down 8% at UKP976,000 in the UK on sales up 8%; profits down 42% at UKP259,000 in Australia on sales down 16%; and profits of UKP115,000, down 46%, on sales down 6% in New Zealand. As for the US affiliate, Electron House Inc, Leigh hopes that this will be off the company’s hands in a matter of weeks. The chairman was cagey about forecasting the year-end results.
