DCC warned the stock market today its IT distribution business has suffered a "significant deterioration" in trading in the United Kingdom over the summer.
DCC said that profits in the IT distribution division will fall by about 45 per cent in the first half of the year, resulting in a decline in group earnings per share of around 10 per cent.
DCC said the UK software distribution business, Gem Distribution, has been particularly hard hit by weaker consumer expenditure on games and computers.
Although it is anticipated the games market will get a boost from the launch of the Microsoft Xbox 360 later this year, this is not expected to have a material impact in the current financial year.
In addition, DCC is experiencing "very difficult" trading conditions in the IT hardware market and continuing severe product price deflation in other parts of the IT distribution business.