(Alliance News) - Midwich Group PLC on Tuesday reported "another record financial performance" in its latest year, and declared an increased dividend.
The Norfolk, England-based company, which distributes specialist audiovisual technology to the trade market, said pretax profit surged 47% to GBP36.5 million in 2023 from GBP24.9 million the prior year.
Revenue increased by 7.1% to GBP1.29 billion from GBP1.20 billion. Midwich said this reflected "a good organic growth performance, against a challenging global market backdrop, and a contribution from the seven acquisitions completed in the year".
Gross profit rose 18% to GBP216.5 million from GBP183.7 million. Midwich noted that the 16.8% margin was its "highest ever" and "substantially ahead" of the previous year's 15.3%, which it attributed to stronger technical product sales.
Midwich proposed a final dividend of 11.0 pence per share, up from 10.5p and bringing the annual total up 10% to 16.5p from 15.0p.
"The group had another strong year, both operationally and financially, improving all key metrics in a highly challenging market," said Managing Director Stephen Fenby. "Our performance reflects the fundamental strength of the business, our customer and vendor relationships, our geographic and technical solution diversity and, most of all, the skills and dedication of our team."
Going forward, Midwich said it has a strong pipeline of acquisition opportunities "which will enable us to continue our strategy of entering new geographical markets and expanding our range of products".
However, it said that while demand for technical products remains strong so far this year, it does not expect a near-term improvement in mainstream product growth.
Fenby said: "Although still early into the new financial year, and being mindful of the continued challenging general economic conditions, we remain confident that 2024 will see yet another year of growth in excess of the overall market."
Shares in Midwich Group traded 2.0% higher at 403.00p on Tuesday afternoon in London.
By Emma Curzon, Alliance News reporter
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Midwich Group (MIDW)