In advance of DCC's annual general meeting which will take place today in Dublin, it has issued a trading statement for its first quarter, which ran until the end of June which is in line with expectations - though the group’s technology distribution business has been affected by a disappointing performance in the UK

Trading as Exertis, DCC Technology is the fourth largest distributor of consumer technology products in Europe.

It says, “As anticipated, the business in the UK continues to be impacted by the weak tablet market and by reduced sales of mobile computing and smartphone products of one large supplier and by weaker demand and increased competition across a number of product sectors.”

DCC, which recently purchased Butegaz, one of the leading suppliers of natural gas in France, from Shell for €464m, says it still anticipates that group operating profits and earnings per share for the current year will be very significantly ahead of last year, on the assumption that the Butegaz deal completes in late 2015 and that there will be normal winter weather conditions.