Softcat sees strong success in FY25, sets slower pace for next year
Large solutions projects contributed to the company’s operating profit soaring in the high-teens
Marlow-based IT infrastructure technology and services provider Softcat has shared figures on the up in its latest trading update for the financial year ending 31 July 2025.
The VAR said it expects to deliver gross profit in the high-teens and operating profit in the mid-teens for the year.
This outcome is reportedly partly driven by the conversion of large solutions projects.
These expectations are above the figures previously predicted in Q3, as the company intended for full year operating profit to rise in the low-teens.
This outlook was already up on the company’s previous forecast, which in H1 expected full year operating profit to grow in the low double-digit digits.
In the third quarter, Graham Charlton, CEO of Softcat, told CRN the VAR’s momentum came from the mid-market, as well as large and complex customers, in both the public and corporate sectors.
The firm also saw growth in areas such as datacentres, security, and networking, propelled by the hardware and laptop PC refresh cycle.
Large deals in financial services, datacentres, AI, and GPU also fuelled the company’s growth this financial year.
Looking ahead, Softcat expects to follow an upward trend in FY26, though at slower pace than during this financial year.
Excluding the contribution from large projects in FY25, the organisation aims to deliver low double-digit gross profit growth and high single-digit operating profit growth in FY26.
With these big deals included, the headline numbers should come down to high single-digit gross profit growth and a low single-digit upward evolution in operating profit.
Fuelling this year’s results was also the company's acquisition of Leeds-based data and AI consultancy Oakland, an organisation that achieved total revenue of £10m in FY24.
The buyout, valued at £8m with the possibility of further contingent payments over the next three years depending on performance, represented the VAR’s first acquisition since its launch in 1993.
With a £2.85bn GII in FY24, Softcat ranks number one in CRN’s Top VARs list.