Reassuringly dull is probably not a motto Bunzl PLC (LSE:BNZL) considered adopting but maybe it should.
Given its share price is up to 2,687p, compared to a low of 1,472.5p in mid-March 2020 – around about the time when the western world was beginning to wake up to the threat of Covid 19 – its theme song should possibly be Elton John’s “I’m Still Standing”.
Covid was not the only hurdle the company has had to overcome; for a logistics firm, the whole supply-chain snarl-up thing was a major obstacle and yet, this morning, the specialist international distribution and services group told the market it was expecting to report “very strong growth” for the first half of 2022.
Group revenue in the first half is expected to increase year on year by about 16% at actual exchange rates and by 12-13% at constant exchange rates, with inflation continuing to drive underlying revenue growth and the impact of acquisitions further supplementing growth.
Group adjusted operating margin for the first half is expected to be slightly higher than historical annual levels, the company said.
The company was incorporated in 1940 and listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1957 but claims to have been in existence since 1954 when Moritz Bunzl opened a small haberdashery business in Bratislava.
In 1883 it relocated to Vienna and then relocated again, to London, in 1938 to escape the clutches of Nazism.
In the 1980s it was known more for being a paper distribution and manufacturing company but as the decades rolled by, the paper side of the business was eclipsed by the distribution side and the fine paper distribution business was jettisoned in 2002.
In 2005, it demerged its manufacturing business and more or less – more, rather than less, actually – became the sort of company it is today.
It is ferociously acquisitive, with an emphasis this century on expanding its footprint in Latin America. In the ten years between 2005 and 2014, it acquired 100 companies. By 2020, that number had risen to 170.
It now has a presence in 31 countries, employs around 21,000 employees and has more than 10,000 supplier relationships across the world.
It has become a FTSE 100 stalwart and is the 40th largest UK-listed company by market capitalisation.
Not bad for a company most people have never heard of.