Poor sales of Windows Vista-related products have hit the profits of PC World, according to its parent company DSG International.
In an interim trading statement issued on Thursday, DSG International said that a 0.6 percent drop in its group profit margin over the 24 weeks to 13 October was 'largely driven by slower Vista-related hardware sales and a changing sales mix in computing'.
PC World delivered good sales performance against a tough prior-year comparative in the back-to-school period,' said the group's chairman, Sir John Collins. 'The reduction in laptop stocks that arose out of disappointing sales of Vista-related products and a changing sales mix have reduced gross margins by around two percent in the computing division, impacting group profits by around £20m in the first half. Stocks are now at normal levels and we expect to recover some of the lost margin through the second half.