Electrocomponents H1 headline profits up 44%

Engineering distribution firm Electrocomponents reported a healthy 44% jump in first half pre-tax headline profits to £55.1m.

Reported profits were up 174% to £54.5m after the reduction in exceptional charges to £0.6m to £11.4 million. Revenues were up to £706m from £626m, boosted by £58m in foreign exchange benefits. The interim dividend is unchanged at 5p.

The company said it had made an encouraging start to the second half of the year, with all hubs seeing an improvement in underlying revenue growth in October versus the Q2 trend.

“The return to positive revenue growth that we saw in our North America and Asia Pacific hubs in Q2 has continued. Northern and Southern Europe are again seeing good growth, while Central Europe returned to modest growth in the month.”

“We have raised our cost savings guidance to £18m of net savings in 2017 and total annualised net savings of £30 million by March 2018. Work continues to identify further efficiencies and simplify the way we operate. All these actions mean that we are well positioned to make strong progress in the year to March 2017.”