Germans invade France

Pan-European reseller taking shape

German reseller, debis Systemhaus, this week expanded its European presence through the take-over of France’s fifth-largest Unix and Windows reseller. Groupe Spring, the desktop services provider, adds offices in Switzerland and Italy to debis Systemhaus’ existing services in France, Austria, Italy, Germany and the Czech Republic. Founded in 1994, Groupe Spring recorded an increase in sales of 17 per cent to FF674 million (£72 million) for the year ended September 1998. The company sells Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Sun and Compaq servers and workstations, as well as consulting and networking. Groupe Spring, with 220 staff, is now a debis Systemhaus subsidiary. Company founder Jean-Claude Yague, who continues as president, expected a sales hike to around FF830 million (£88.9 million) in 1999 as a result of the acquisition. Groupe Spring is expected to complement debis Systemhaus’ PC and network subsidiary debis IT Services France. A supervisory board will oversee both subsidiaries. debis Systemhaus is owned by DaimlerChrysler Services. Its sales for 1998 were expected to be approximately DM4 billion (£1.5 billion). ®