Ingram NZ profits down, cash dries up

Financial results for Ingram Micro New Zealand have just revealed that sales grew slightly from $578 million to $582 million for the financial year ending December 31st, 2009.

However, profits were down from $15.9 to $12.4 million mainly due to higher overheads. Gross profits were consistent with a slight drop from 8.9% to 8.6% while inventory levels rose from $40.6 to 42 million.

During its 2009 financial year Ingram purchased VAD, which made a profit contribution of $1.2 million and Vantex from Provenco, which lost $323k during the period.

The company ended its 2009 financial year with $2,000 cash, down from close to $1.8 million in the previous year. (No we haven't made a mistake here).

Ingram relied more heavily upon its bank loan facility using $57 million this year compared to $40 million last year. This is still well within its lending limit of $90 million from Westpac.

The cash was put to good use in halving the amount the distributor owed suppliers, which ended at just $23 million, well down on last year.

The Channel understands that at the peak of its SAP implementation problems, the business employed an additional 30 personnel, with this number slowly reducing as the system beds down. These costs and any sales affected from the implementation, will not be evident until June 2011, when the company reports again.

All prices are in NZ dollars and Swedish rounding has been used when appropriate.