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Premier Farnell profit and revenue decline(City A.M. (UK) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) BRITISH electronics parts distrib-utor Premier Farnell saw its profits and revenues fall in the first half of the year, but said it was upbeat about hitting full-year targets. Pre-tax profits at the FTSE 250-listed company fell to £36.4m in the six months to 3 August 2014, down 4.5 per cent on £38.1m last year. Revenues were down 3.8 per cent to £479.3m, with weaker sales growth from its marketing and distribution businesses in America and Europe, as the group was also pursuing a restructuring. However, sales of the Raspberry Pi computer, used to teach computer programming skills in schools and for which Premier Farnell is a big worldwide distributor, rose 4.8 per cent in the first half of the year. Laurence Bain, Premier Farnell chief executive, said: "The group made progress in the first half towards achieving its sales growth target of six per cent, while maintaining stable gross margin." " "We continue to expect a year of further progress in achieving the Group's strategic goals with our full year expectations remaining unchanged." Citigroup analysts were less positive though, and said: "We believe Premier offers only muted growth prospects over the cycle, with limited scope for margin improvement." Premier Farnell stocks more than 600,000 products, and represents above 3,000 manufacturer brands. Premier Farnell shares, which have fallen around 16 per cent in the year to date, rose 2.39 per cent yesterday, to finish on 193.10p. (c) 2014 City A.M. |