AGM Statement

Midwich Group PLC

14 May 2024

 

14 May 2024

Midwich Group plc

("Midwich" or the "Group")

AGM Statement

Midwich Group (AIM: MIDW), a global specialist audio visual ("AV") distributor to the trade market, will hold its Annual General Meeting at 10.00am today at the Group's head office in Diss.

At the meeting Andrew Herbert, Chairman, will make the following statement:

"Midwich once again made significant strategic progress in 2023, including delivering record financial results, entry into the Canadian market, completion of seven acquisitions and further development of our leadership team. Against a challenging market backdrop, the Group's focus on value-added technical solutions resulted in significant margin improvements and further market share gains in our biggest regions.

However, the challenging market conditions seen last year have continued into 2024, especially in the UK & Ireland, where our business has experienced a mid-single digit decline in organic revenue year to date, despite achieving record market share with many of our key vendors.

Group organic revenue for the first four months of the financial year is in line with the prior year, which is below the Board's earlier expectations, as the persistence of elevated interest rates has deferred purchasing decisions and market recovery. The Board believes it is now prudent to assume trading conditions in certain markets, such as the UK & Ireland, will likely remain challenging for the rest of 2024. We now expect adjusted operating profit for the full year to be broadly in line with that achieved in 2023.

Midwich remains well positioned as the leading global specialist Pro AV distributor, with our £1.3bn revenue in 2023 representing less than 1% of the global market and 3-4% of our target addressable market.

We are pleased with recent strategic progress in further diversifying our geographic footprint and technical solutions. The seven acquisitions made during the last financial year, all have integrated well and are trading in-line with expectations.

Over the coming years, we anticipate there being significant opportunities to continue growing faster than the overall market, both organically and through acquisition and we remain excited by the long-term prospects for the business."

Midwich intends to announce a trading update for the six months to 30 June 2024 on 18 July 2024.

For further information:

Midwich Group plc Stephen Fenby, Managing Director Stephen Lamb, Finance Director	[phone]
Investec Bank plc (NOMAD and Joint Broker to Midwich) Carlton Nelson / Ben Griffiths	[phone]
Berenberg (Joint Broker to Midwich) Ben Wright / Richard Andrews	[phone]
FTI Consulting Alex Beagley / Tom Hufton / Matthew Young	[phone] [e-mail]

About Midwich Group

Midwich Group is a specialist AV distributor, with operations in the UK and Ireland, EMEA, Asia Pacific and North America. The Group's long-standing relationships with over 800 vendors, including blue-chip organisations, support a comprehensive product portfolio across major audio visual categories such as displays, projectors, technical AV, broadcast, professional audio, lighting and unified communications. The Group operates as the sole or largest in-country distributor for a number of its vendors in their respective product sets.

The Directors attribute this position to the Group's technical expertise, extensive product knowledge and strong customer service offering built up over a number of years. The Group has a large and diverse base of over 24,000 trade customers, most of which are professional AV integrators and IT resellers serving sectors such as corporate, education, retail, residential and hospitality.

Initially a UK only distributor, the Group now has approximately 1,900 employees across the UK and Ireland, EMEA, North America and Asia Pacific. A core component of the Group's growth strategy is further expansion of its international operations and footprint into strategically targeted jurisdictions.

For further information, please visit www.midwichgroupplc.com

 

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