David Dicker (Dicker Data)
The acquisition of Hills, organic growth from existing and new vendors have led Dicker Data towards achieving strong revenue and profit growth in the first half of the financial year ending 30 June.
The publicly listed distributor revealed revenue jumped 9.4 per cent to A$1.6 billion while earnings before tax were up 16.4 per cent to A$71 million. Net profit also lifted 8 per cent to A$54 million during the first half of FY23.
The increase in revenue was partly attributed to a full six-month contribution from the acquisition of Hills' Security and Information Technology distribution division, which wrapped up on 1 May last year for A$19.4 million, the distributor said.
The unit was rebranded to Dicker Data Access and Surveillance (DAS) at the time the deal closed, with its contribution making up up A$73 million and featured the addition of new vendors and marked the first full year of operating in the access and surveillance market.
Dicker Data noted that while there was a decline in demand for personal computing devices, it was able to capitalise on demand for networking and storage products, as well as increase its software business, which offered 21 per cent growth in the first half.
The distributor also noted that after three years of continuous supply chain disruption and chip shortages, the first half of FY23 was the strongest indicator of a ‘normalising’ supply-side market.
Outstanding backorders have also decreased as supply improved, adding to the total closed revenue in the first half.
Despite this, open backorders still remain well above A$200 million.
“The appetite for digital transformation amongst Australian and New Zealand businesses remains strong and the company stands to continue benefitting from the demand,” Dicker told shareholders.
“Cyber security continues to be a key focus for all sectors in 2023, with intelligent solutions such as Zero Trust and SASE [secure access service edge] enabling secure, compliant and protected technology environments. Cyber-attacks continue to increase as businesses and consumers centre more of their lives around technology, in turn driving awareness and demand for modern cyber security solutions.
“We are anticipating a high level of growth in the adoption of automation, machine learning and data capture and analysis tools as businesses and governments prioritise efficiency and productivity within their operations.”
Audited and full details of the distributor's FY23 half year results will be released on 30 August.
