DCC tapping into recovering market

There are increasing signs that the market is recovering as various channel players share trading updates and lift the lid on the progress that has been made, particularly in the second half of this year.

DCC, the parent of Exertis, recently added to that picture with an interim report that covered its first half, indicating that the business continued to improve revenues. The group, which operates in technology, healthcare, and the oil and gas market, saw overall revenues improve by 26.8% to £7.52bn, up from £5.93bn in the equivalent period last year.

DCC Technology, which trades as Exertis, also delivered improved revenues, up 0.8% to reach £1.985bn and operating profits improved by 6.5% from £25.5m to £27.2m for the six months to 30 September 2021. Operating profits were also up by 6.5% to £27.2m and operating margin improved to 1.4%, up from 1.3%.

Tim Griffin, managing director of DCC Technology, said “business was a team sport” and it had benefited from some sides of the group flourishing while others struggled in the face of the pandemic. Overall, though, the firm is in a position to support customers as they transition to a new normal.

“I’m happy with the way [the market is] going, and it’s multifaceted in the way that it’s evolving. It’s the next generation of hybrid working – companies investing in office solutions that enable them to figure out how to communicate with a distributed workforce and customers. It’s hospitality – bouncing back and thinking they need to refresh their cycles, having had empty rooms. So it’s a raft of things that are really playing in the space,” he said.

“We consider ourselves as a specialist, and look at having a portfolio of specialist distributors in the technology space, that will transcend mobile phones, or AV, or even enterprise, but that each of them have a role to play as the world bounces back to something that resembles normal,” added Griffin.

The spectre of Omicron has caused some concerns, and Griffin said that before it hit the headlines he was feeling very optimistic about the year ahead. Despite that, the pieces are in place across the group to keep the momentum displayed in the trading update going.

Like so many businesses across the channel, the past couple of years have underlined the importance of an organisation’s people, and Griffin said its staff continued to demonstrate a willingness to go the extra mile to support partners.

“One of the things I would really highlight is the operational teams,” he said. “You tend to spend an awful lot of time talking about revenues and commercial profitability and so on. All of this is built on the ability to ship and operational teams around the world, in our warehouses, that have worked through the pandemic and just done amazing things. I take my hat off to them.”