RS Group PLC

Management Reports • Jul 5, 2018

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RNS Number : 6412T

Electrocomponents PLC

05 July 2018

Electrocomponents plc today issues a trading update for its first quarter ended 30 June 2018

	Like-for-like revenue growth(1)
Region	Q4 to March 2018	Q1 to June 2018
Northern Europe	10%	10%
Southern Europe	8%	7%
Central Europe	8%	9%
Total Europe	9%	9%
Asia Pacific	15%	10%
Americas	10%	13%
Group	10%	10%

We have made a strong start to the year to 31 March 2019, with continued double digit revenue growth and improved profitability.

·      Q1 like-for-like revenue growth remained strong at 10%.

o  All five regions continued to see good growth. The fastest growing region in the quarter was the Americas which saw like-for-like revenue growth accelerate to 13% driven by market share gains in a strong underlying market.

o  RS Pro, our own-brand business outperformed the underlying Group with like-for-like revenue growth of 11% in the quarter.

o  Digital revenue grew broadly in line with the Group overall with like-for-like revenue growth of 9% during the quarter.

·      We remain focused on initiatives to drive gross margin and remain confident of delivering stable gross margin in our base(2) business for the year.

·      We continue to focus on driving a higher proportion of gross profit into operating profit. As mentioned at our full-year results, we have launched a second phase of the Performance Improvement Plan aimed at making our organisation simpler and more customer centric. As part of this plan we are targeting £12 million of annualised cumulative savings by March 2021, with £4 million to be delivered during the current financial year.

·      On 31 May we completed the acquisition of IESA. Trading is in line with expectations and we remain excited by prospects to accelerate growth at IESA. Early feedback from customers, suppliers and employees has been encouraging.

Lindsley Ruth, Chief Executive Officer, commented

"The year has started well with our continued focus on the customer, digital leadership and sales effectiveness driving strong results across the business. We are making good progress on our initiatives to further simplify the way we operate in order to drive a more efficient and scalable operating model. All this means we are confident of delivering further strong progress in the current financial year."

LEI: 549300KVXDURRKVW7R37

Enquiries:

David Egan	Group Finance Director	0207 239 8400
Polly Elvin	Investor Relations and Corporate PR	0207 239 8427
Martin Robinson/ Lisa Jarrett-Kerr	Tulchan Communications	0207 353 4200

Notes:

1.        Like-for-like change excludes the effects of changes in exchange rates on translation of overseas operating results, with 2018 converted at 2019 average exchange rates for the period, and the impact of acquisitions. Revenue is also adjusted to eliminate the impact of trading days year on year.

2.       Base excludes the post-acquisition results of IESA.

3.      Our profit remains sensitive to movements in exchange rates on translation of overseas profit. Average exchange rates for the year ended 31 March 2018 for euro and US$ respectively were €1.13 and $1.33. Every 1 cent movement in the euro has a circa £1.3 million impact on annual profit. Every 1 cent movement in US$ has a circa £0.4 million impact on annual profit.

4.      In the year ending 31 March 2019 we expect to see a positive impact of around £9 million on revenue from additional trading days compared with the year ended 31 March 2018.

Electrocomponents plc - Conference Call Dial in Instructions
Date:	Thursday 5 July
UK Time:	08.00
Telephone number:	+44 (0) 1452 541003
PIN:	5292097
Chairman:	Lindsley Ruth
Electrocomponents plc - Replay Dial in Instructions (available until 12 July 2018)
Telephone number:	+44 (0) 1452 550000
PIN:	5292097

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