UPDATE 2-Electrocomponents' new financial year off to slow start

* Full-year headline pretax profit rises 7.4 pct

* Full-year revenue rises 2.1 pct

* Total international sales rise 3.8 pct

* Sales rise 2 pct in first seven weeks of financial year

* Shares fall as much as 6.2 pct (Adds CEO and analyst quote, updates share movement, addsdetails.)

By Noor Zainab Hussain

May 22 (Reuters) - Electrocomponents Plc, a Britishdistributor of electronic products for engineers, reported 2percent growth in sales for the first seven weeks of itsfinancial year, sending its shares down as much as 6.2 percentin early trading.

Electrocomponents' shares were down 3.8 percent at 278.44pence on the London Stock Exchange at 1158 GMT after hitting alow of 271.

UBS analysts cut their price target on the stock to 315pence from 320, mainly due to higher costs related to thecompany's marketing and organisational efforts to win marketshare from smaller competitors around the world.

However, Electrocomponents said sales trends so far in Mayhave improved compared to April.

"What comes into play in the next year is (foreign exchangerates)" Peel Hunt analyst Henry Carver told Reuters. "There isnow a fairly chunky headwind, costs are going up, which is goingto impact the profit margin," he said.

However, Chief Financial Officer Simon Boddie told Reutersthat the strong pound would have a small impact on profit forthe year ending March 2015.

Electrocomponents gets about 70 percent of group revenuefrom outside the UK.

The company said on Thursday its full-year headline pretaxprofit rose 7.4 percent to 101.1 million pounds ($170.6 million)in the year ended March 31, helped mainly by demand in Europeand North America.

Revenue rose 2.1 percent to 1.27 billion pounds.

Electrocomponents - which distributes 500,000 products,sourced from over 2,500 suppliers - said underlying sales in theUK declined 1.8 percent.

" ... We have been surprised that it has not done a bitbetter in the UK, hence we have changed some of the managementthere", Chief Executive Ian Mason told Reuters.

The management changes were implemented in the second halfof last year, the company said.

Electrocomponents, which says it typically supplies electronics design engineers, machine and panel builders andmaintenance engineers, said underlying international sales rose3.8 percent to 898.8 million pounds.

Underlying sales include the impact of foreign exchangerates and the number of trading days.

Electrocomponents, whose brands include RS Components andAllied Electronics, said underlying sales in continental Europeincreased 4.1 percent in the year, while North American salesrose 4.2 percent. Sales in the Asia Pacific region rose 2.1percent.

($1 = 0.5925 British Pounds) (Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bangalore; Editing byGopakumar Warrier and Ted Kerr)