Premier Farnell under pressure

The continued strength of sterling knocked around pounds 6m off annual profits at Premier Farnell, the world's biggest catalogue distributor of electronic bits and pieces. Howard Poulson, chief executive, said: "In terms of translation, one cent is equivalent to $1m of profits." However, he said that the biggest impact on last year's profits, which failed to meet expectations with a rise from an underlying pounds 110.8m to pounds 137m before tax, came from weak conditions in the volume distribution market.

Investment Column, page 22