What number stands out the most for you from the H1 results?
It’s the consistency and breadth of the numbers that was the most satisfying thing about them.
You sold 79% – or £257m – more hardware in H1 year on year. What portion of that would you chalk up to pull forward from the memory shortage?
The component shortage pull forward is not the story of these figures. It’s in there, but it’s not the headline.
It’s not a perfect science, but it’s a small part of the growth. We did some big datacentre deals with a couple of big customers. They were very strong within that hardware number. And then there was some stimulus from pull forward of the component shortages, but it was the smaller part of that growth.
You’ve lifted your FY operating profit growth guidance to high single digits. But that still implies second-half operating profit will be behind last year. Can you talk more about what’s behind this relative caution?
I think we get accused of [being cautious] every set of results. In our industry, and in what we do, there’s never a huge degree of certainty. And right now, there’s some more uncertainty being dialled back into the macro.
We do have some tougher comps – we did do some big deals in the second half [of last year]. So that’s the main reason why we always guided for H1 to be stronger than H2. So really, what we’re doing is just saying, ‘don’t move H2 for now; let’s see how we go’.
If you listened to the analyst call, you’ll have heard me talk about how positive I am about our competitive position. Whatever happens with component shortages or the situation in the Middle East, or anything else, I think we’ll continue to gain market share and grow.
But let’s see – because there’s a lot of water to flow under the bridge.
Interview continues on following page…
