Revenue for the second quarter of the fiscal year was 183.7 million British Pounds, a 17% decrease from the same quarter a year earlier. Total profit before tax was 16.2 million pounds, down 10% from the second quarter a year earlier. For the half fiscal year that ended August 2nd 2009 revenue was 388 million pounds, down 16% from the same period last year. Total profit before taxation for the half fiscal that ended August 2nd was 25.2 million pounds, down 40% from the same period a year ago.

Farnell's developing international markets continue to perform strongly. Sales in Eastern Europe grew 39% in the second quarter, and sales in India and Greater China up 99% and 5%, respectively.

One of the strategic highlights is that global web environment continues to be Farnell's customers’ channel of choice, with web sales in its distribution businesses growing 5% year on year. Farnell Europe is now achieving 55% of total sales via eCommerce channels. The company's newly developed design engineering community, element14, has surpassed significant benchmarks set before its launch, attracting over 6,000 new customers. element14 has been selected by Google to partner as an early developer of the GoogleWave software.

Commenting on the results, Harriet Green, Group Chief Executive, said: "The rate of our revenue decline has abated in Europe and Asia Pacific and we have continued to outperform the markets and take market share in these regions. Revenue performance in our North American business continues to reflect the decline seen in the broader US MRO market. However, absolute sales per day for this business improved throughout the second quarter, a trend which has continued into August as we accelerate our EDE drive and our US transformation continues at pace.

Group sales growth in August has shown an improvement on the performance reported in the first and second quarters of this year. With the clear validation of our strategy, another quarter of gross margin stability and our commitment to investing in our strategic priorities, the Board remains confident, that as a focused and agile organisation, the Group is well positioned for the opportunities that we face."