Midwich logs strongest annual growth in its history

The distie is filled with confidence for 2023 despite facing economic uncertainty and increasing interest rates

AV distributor Midwich Group claims it had a solid end to last year with record results in its latest trading update for the year ended 31 December 2022.

The Norfolk-based firm expects to report record revenues for FY22 of £1.2bn, climbing 40 per cent over the previous year.

The board of the LSE-listed company also now anticipates reporting adjusted profit before tax for the 2022 period "comfortably" ahead of market consensus.

Adjusted net debt at the end of the year was under £100m (representing approximately 1.7 times adjusted EBITDA), in line with the board's expectations. Cash generation was between 50 per cent and 60 per cent, which was also in line with the board's expectations given the group's strong revenue growth.

"2022 saw the strongest annual growth in the group's history," CEO Stephen Fenby said.

"Despite continued general economic uncertainty and rising interest rates, the strength of the business and expected growth of the AV market lead the board to look forward to 2023 and beyond with confidence."

Midwich bolstered by M&A

In order to support the delivery of its acquisition pipeline, Midwich Group said it increased its revolving credit facility from £80m to £175m in December 2022.

Last year it snapped up fellow UK distributor Nimans along with other subsidiaries from Nycomm Holdings Limited for £27.5m.

The group also bought a majority stake in Cardiff-based distributor DVS.

Fenby said in September these deals played a major part in the company's H1 2022 growth.

"They're both going very well, we've been very pleased with how they've fit into the group," he told CRN.

"We spent a fair bit of time with each business looking for mutual opportunities, doing some cross selling of products into each other's customer bases. They are going very well, they've integrated and there's a good fit in there."