Sage 'satisfied' as squeezed small biz still puts out

Sage the British software juggernaut said that its trading results had held up since 1 October, despite the strain on its core customer base in small businesses.

In an interim manager's statement CEO Guy Berruyer described Sage's performance in the past three months as "satisfactory":

“In the context of a macro-economic environment which remains challenging for our customers, we have made a satisfactory start to the year and trading is in line with expectations for the year.

He said he expected the company to continue strongly despite fears for the European market.

"The strong fundamentals of Sage's business positions us well to cope with the ups and downs of the economic cycle. We are confident that the business priorities, on which we are focused to drive growth, will bear fruit as the year progresses but we remain watchful of the European environment in particular.”

Based in the UK, Sage trades in 23 countries. ®