PRELIMINARY STATEMENT
Electrocomponents plc, the world's leading high service distributor of electronics and maintenance products, today announces its results for the year ended 31 March 2012.
SUMMARY OF RESULTS
'Broad-based growth delivering record full year sales'.
|
|
2012 |
2011 |
Change |
|
Revenue |
1,267.4m |
1,182.2m |
7% (1) |
|
Profit before tax |
122.3m |
114.0m |
7% |
|
Return on sales |
10.1% |
10.1% |
- |
|
Return on capital employed |
24.6% |
24.2% |
0.4% pts |
|
Earnings per share |
19.5p |
18.0p |
8% |
|
Dividend per share (2) |
11.75p |
11.5p |
2% |
|
Free cash flow |
52.7m |
57.4m |
(8)% |
(1) Underlying revenue growth, adjusting for currency and trading days
(2) 2012: includes 5p interim and 6.75p proposed final dividend
Financial Highlights
- Broad-based underlying sales growth of 7%, with all regions delivering growth
- Gross margin broadly stable through the year
- Further cost leverage, with operating costs reducing by 0.3% points of sales
- Profit before tax increasing by 7%, return on capital employed rising to 25%
- Full year proposed dividend increased by 2% to 11.75p per share
- Strong balance sheet, with net debt to EBITDA of 1.0x and successful 210m bank refinancing
Operational Highlights
- International business growth of 9%, now contributing more than 70% of Group sales
- UK performed well with sales growth of 3% and contribution growth of 4%
- Electronics growth of 7%, outperforming the market, with over 30k products added
- DesignSpark, the Group's online design tool, attracted over 1.2 million visitors since launch
- Maintenance growth of 7% boosted by global strategic suppliers and expansion of European offer
- eCommerce revenue growth of 18%, share of Group revenue of 54% up from 49% last year
- Successfully installed new IT system in North America and upgraded systems in UK and Europe
CURRENT TRADING AND OUTLOOK
In the first seven weeks of the new financial year, the Group has delivered sales at a similar level to last year. The International business declined by 2% and the UK grew by 4%. Within International, Continental Europe declined by 1% and both North America and Asia Pacific declined by 3%.
Whilst we are mindful of economic conditions and recognise that comparatives will remain demanding during the first half of the new financial year, we believe that the Group is well placed to continue to take market share in international markets. Therefore we are continuing to invest to drive performance in the coming years.
IAN MASON, GROUP CHIEF EXECUTIVE, COMMENTED:
"The Group has delivered record full year sales of 1.3 billion, representing sales growth of 7% and building on the excellent progress we made last year. This growth is broad-based, with all regions and both electronics and maintenance performing well, and is being driven by the success of our eCommerce channel, which grew its revenues by 18% and accounted for over half of Group sales.
We are the leading global high service distributor operating in large and fragmented markets and we have continued to gain market share internationally. Each of our International regions grew by 9%. In addition, we have continued to deliver cost leverage.
With a strong business model, a proven strategy and a global infrastructure that has been strengthened following investment in our systems in North America, UK and Europe, we see significant long-term growth potential for the Group. We are recommending an increase in our final dividend of 4%."
