Ingram Micro Inc, the world’s biggest wholesale distributor of computer products, continued its rise to prominence on Wednesday as the Santa Ana, California-based company released numbers showing another three months of growth. Second quarter net profits were up by 39% at $55.6m while revenues grew by 33% to $4.96bn. Having floated in November 1996 when it was already a $12bn a year concern, Ingram generated $16.5bn in revenues last year, and it will easily extend that again in 1998. But the profit margins in the distribution business continue to be painfully thin. While a company like Microsoft Corp nets around 34 cents for every dollar of sales, Ingram takes in a little over a penny. And mergers and acquisitions continue to be its strategy for profitable growth, with the company closing another European acquisition on Tuesday. Ingram paid $100m in cash for the German distributor Macrotron AG. The price may seem small in comparison to Ingram’s overall size, but $100m represents more than half of the group’s profit for the whole of last year.
