Computacenter PLC (LSE:CCC) reported modest growth in annual profit and remains positive despite a challenging macroeconomic environment.
For the 12 months to 31 December 2022, revenue rose by 29% to £6.47bn from £5.03bn a year prior although the figure for 2021 was restated from £6.73bn to reflect a change in how revenue for standalone software and resold third-party services contracts are accounted for.
Adjusted pre-tax profit rose to £263.7mln from £255.6mln while earnings per share improved 3.2% to 169.7p from 165.6p in 2021. The dividend was increased to 67.9p from 66.3p.
The company said in 2023, it does not have anywhere near the same challenge as it faced in 2022. Demand from most of its largest customers remains solid, particularly for IT infrastructure.
Mike Norris, chief executive, said: “Our challenges for the coming year include, to a small extent, Technology Sourcing margins, due to the fact it is the largest customers, which are dilutive to margins, that are spending most, and, more significantly, Services margins due to price pressure in the market and salary inflation. Supply constraints have eased materially and while some will always remain, we are now operating at close to normal market conditions.
“Aligned with this, our inventory levels started to fall at the start of the fourth quarter of last year and we expect further reduction this year, which will continue to decrease the working capital required in the business.
“We remain positive about the outlook in the short, medium, and long term. While there are plenty of challenges due to the macroeconomic environment, we continue to expect 2023 to be a year of progress.”