DCC has just released its yearly figures, showing an increase in profits once again. While the technology side hasn’t fared as well in the past year, there are high hopes that 2024/5 will be better as more businesses look to refresh their devices.
This year marks DCC’s 30th anniversary as a public company and, as with previous years, it has been one of growth.
In its accounts for the year ended March 31, 2004, DCC made an operating profit of 4.1% to £682.8 million. In addition, the company proposed 5% increase in dividend – the 30th year of dividend growth.
“It’s been great to see consistent growth and dividend growth for DCC,” says Tim Griffin, chief executive of Exertis, which is owned by DCC.
While the company saw a dip in revenues year-on-year – down from £22.2 billion in 2023 to £19.9 billion – that was largely down to fluctuations in energy prices, Tim notes.
Technology refresh
Nevertheless, DCC Energy enjoyed a successful 12 months, with profits up year-on-year. DCC Healthcare was also profitable, but slightly lower than in 2023. DCC Technology was also profitable but again profits were down: £91.7 million compared to £106.1 million in 2023.
Tim says the reduction in profits in the technology business reflected the global slowdown in that space in 2023/4. “But the UK and Irish businesses delivered on their budgets and delivered organic growth, which is pleasing,” says Tim. “The retail and B2B business were on a transformation journey, so really pleasing to see the company delivering on that promise.
“We also measure ourselves against the market, so it’s fantastic to see our retail business take a good share and our B2B hold its head up,” says Tim. “There were pleasing results in parts of the technology space. Obviously, it was disappointing to go backwards overall, but that was broadly representative of the market.”
DCC noted in its results that it is positive about prospects across the business for 2024/5, and Tim agrees, adding that it could be a particularly good year for the technology side.
“A lot of businesses are sweating their assets now and trying to extract as much value out of the investments that they’ve made and so are able to delay some of their purchases,” he says. “But with Windows 11, AI assistants such as Copilot and the new chipset generations that are coming out, those, hopefully, will fuel the refresh cycle later in the summer and into the autumn.”
AI growth
As Tim mentioned, AI assistants are likely to be a factor in the upcoming refresh cycle but will be more influential in future years.
“AI is a technology that is still feeling its way around the use cases,” he says. “I liken it to the advent of the Internet; when it first appeared, every month we were told it would change the world and we didn’t really feel it. But then it just seeped its way into every part of our lives, and I think the same thing is going to happen with AI. In 10 years, it’s going to be everywhere. But I think it’s going to seep into our lives, and we won’t notice it happening. It’s not going to be an instant change for everybody, but it will be in time.”
Success built on people
Tim also emphasises that a key part of DCC’s overall success is down to the people who work in the businesses that are included under the DCC umbrella, including Exertis. “Our success is built on our people and our investment hypothesis is predicated on specialisms,” he says.
“We are a collection of businesses with different specialisms and this strategy is working but it is built on great people and the businesses being a great place to work. Happy employees tend to work better, and we invest a lot in our people.”
