Midwich’s incursion into the UC space has broadened its customer base and upped its level of engagement with international integrators, said MD Stephen Fenby.

The distributor revealed its interim results for the first six months of its financial 2021, with sales soaring 30 percent year-on-year to £390.1m. Gross profit grew 35 percent to £59.1m, while adjusted operating profit grew a staggering 238 percent to £13.9m.

The AV specialist also revealed that trading momentum has continued despite ongoing disruption to the corporate, live events, and entertainment industries, and its market share has remained either stable or grown in key territories.

Its purchase of Germany-based eLink’s UC business has strengthened its unified comms portfolio, an area that Midwich’s Head of Technology, Jenny Hicks, told UC Today in April was at the “front and centre” of its growth strategy.

“I am very pleased with the group’s performance in H1 2021, particularly given significant lockdowns in a number of key territories early in the period,” stated Fenby.

“Trading in EMEA showed the greatest improvement, particularly in Germany and France.  After a slow start due to a severe lockdown, the UK and Ireland division improved strongly across the period, with revenues in the month of June 2021 reaching the 2019 level. Acquisitions made strong positive contributions in the period, and we have seen a significant number of new opportunities presented.

“Our expansion into new geographical markets and product categories (such as unified communications) has enhanced the group’s customer base, and also its level of engagement with major international integrators.”

Fenby did, however, strike a note of caution as he revealed that the expected mass return to office by many organisations has been delayed, which has had a knock-on effect on the recovery of the corporate market. Supply chain issues and product shortages are also causing concern, though Fenby added that the board of directors is confident that trading will be “comfortably” ahead of previous expectations.

“The higher margin live events and hospitality markets are starting to recover in a number of territories, although we believe there is still a considerable way to go,” he added.

“The recovery of the corporate market has been slightly slower than expected, as corporates have in some cases deferred their return-to-office plans.   There is a more significant level of enquiries and activity in this market, and we now expect that this will start to be converted into orders and revenue in early 2022.

“The board believes that the group’s markets and business should continue to improve steadily across the remainder of 2021 and into 2022, although there remains a risk of negative impact due to further lockdowns.  Shortages of product appear to be worsening and are having a dampening effect on revenues, albeit such impacts should be temporary and not affect the general growth trajectory of the business.”

 

 

 



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