Premier Farnell beat expectations in its first quarter as sales grew sequentially 5.7%. There was also good news in the shape of a 2.8% increase in sales per day compared with the first quarter last year.
The distribution group cited strategic actions to drive customer acquisition and market share along with strong sales growth of the Raspberry Pi computer and associated products. Taking out Raspberry Pi group sales fell 0.6% year on year compared to a fourth quarter decline of 6.4%. eCommerce sales represented 57% of the group total in Q1, and the element14 community added 20,000 new members in Q1 taking the total number of registered users to 170,000.
The company warned that global markets remain challenging and customers continue to act cautiously.
Laurence Bain, Group Chief Executive Officer, commented: “We are pleased that our actions to enhance our proposition and drive sales have enabled the Group to return to positive growth in the first quarter. However, current market conditions remain challenging with indicators still weak in all our global markets.
We continue to enhance our customer proposition as we invest in inventory, systems and our differentiating multichannel sales strategy, starting with our new global web platform which is currently being implemented in North America.
We remain confident in our ability to implement our strategic vision and optimise the business’ performance to grow our active customer base, gain market share and drive financial performance.”
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