Exertis delivers the growth to swell out DCC full year numbers

The decision to increase the focus a couple of years ago on the audiovisual market has been one of the factors helping Exertis deliver a decent set of numbers.

The distributor has been increasing its commitment to the AV market, building on its acquisition of Medium in 2016 by adding staff and putting more depth behind key vendor relationships, including Promethean.

The numbers for the year ended 31 March from parent DCC Group indicated that AV, along with components and gaming had been particularly strong in the UK.

Exertis makes up the Technology operation at DCC and saw operating profit increase 16.3% to £47.8m. Revenues also improved by 12.6% hitting £3.08bn.

Revenue at the firm as a whole, which includes operations in the oil and gas and healthcare, were up by 11%.

Donal Murphy, chief executive of DCC Group, who took over from Tommy Breem last July, said that its acquisitions had paid off.

"It was also a record year of development for the Group, with approximately £670 million of capital spent on acquisitions, the highest level of spend in DCC’s history. The acquisition activity during the year again demonstrates DCC’s ability to acquire and integrate businesses in our existing markets to strengthen our market positions, build scale and increase our relevance and service offerings to customers and suppliers," he said.

The results in the UK benefited from the earlier acquisitions of Hammer and Medium. The enterprise business in France was firm but weakness on the consumer side was a concern shared with investors.

Overall there were indications that that the firm was not only looking to replicate a decent 2018 fiscal year but could hit the acquisition trail again.

"The Group continues to have the opportunity, ambition and capacity for further development across each of our divisions, supported by a strong and liquid balance sheet," said Murphy.

"We expect that the year to 31 March 2019 will be another year of profit growth and development for the Group,” he added.