Acquisitions deliver for Midwich

The acquisitions of Nimans and DVS have already had a positive impact on the financial performance of Midwich, with the distributor able to share a strong set of interim H1 numbers.

The distributor reported an almost 46% increase in revenue from £390.1m to £568.6m for the six months ended 30 June. Adjusted pre-tax profits improved at almost the same percentage of 47.7%, to come in at £19.2m.

During the first half, the channel player made two acquisitions, with those both contributing to that improved revenues. Organically, Midwich increased by 27.9% in the period.

The acquisitions also increased the distributor’s exposure to the unified communications (UC) market and took it into a fresh space of video security products.

Stephen Fenby, managing director of Midwich Group, was able to strike an upbeat tone around the numbers and highlight the progress it had made compared to the rest of the market.

“The group delivered outstanding revenue growth of 45.8% to £568.6m in H1 2022. This reflected significant organic revenue growth of 27.9%, which was supplemented by a strong contribution from the two UK businesses acquired in early 2022. Our performance compares very favourably with Avixa’s global pro AV [audiovisual] market growth estimate of 10.5% for 2022,” he said.

“Trading performance in the UK and Ireland, and North America, was particularly impressive, with growth on a constant currency basis of 86.3% and 81.5% respectively in H1 2021. Growth was driven by a combination of market share gains, new vendors and technologies and partial recovery in some end user markets,” he added.

The audiovisual market was hit particularly hard by the Covid-19 restrictions, but has since seen a bounce back as life has returned to a more normal footing.

“We have also seen some recovery in the live events markets as well as for in-person activities such as in the theatre and leisure sectors, as people regain confidence to attend in-person events,” said Fenby.

Most headlines are full of gloom and doom, but Fenvy sounded a positive note about the state of the market: “Although general macro-economic conditions are widely expected to remain challenging over the coming months, the group has not seen a fall-off in demand.

“Despite our overall scale, growth and geographic breadth, the opportunity for the group to grow profitable market share remains strong,” he added. “The board believes that the group’s business and the broader AV market should continue to improve steadily across the remainder of 2022 and into 2023, although there remains a risk of negative impact due to a decline in general economic conditions.”

The firm’s board recently upgraded expectations and it continues to stand by that with a view that – even with component shortages and rising economic challenges – the business and the AV market are in a good position.