Davenport waves goodbye to Cellnet

Davenport has been with the ASX-listed distributor for two tumultuous years, with it recently demerging its profitable mobile content and entertainment provider, Mercury Mobile.

The distributor also saw its revenue continue to decline by a further 15 per cent in the final six months of 2006.

Its sales revenue fell to $269 million in the six months ending 31 December 2006, compared with $319 million in the corresponding prior period.

The firm’s only glimmer of hope was its net profit which rose to $2.9 million from the $0.7m achieved in the same period a year ago. Earnings before interest and income tax also rose to $4.2 million from $2.7 million in the same period a year ago.

While as MD Davenport made some controversial decisions. In September 2006 he decided to take the axe to the business again in another internal restructure which saw the retrenchment of GM sales, Darryl Tucker, and the imminent closure of its Sydney and Melbourne warehouses.

In an internal staff memo obtained by ITnews, Davenport said that despite the company's merger of its Cassa, ITW and Cellnet business early 2005, the company was continuing to experience difficulty in competing in its core telco and IT businesses.

Mark Bloomer has been appointed to replace Davenport as managing director. Previously Bloomer was the chief financial officer at Cellnet and has worked for the distributor since July 2005.