Lindsay Ralphs, CEO of South Africa-based conglomerate Bidvest, has said the group’s Office and Print division achieved outstanding results in the first half of its financial year.
Office and Print – which includes the Waltons, Kolok, Konica Minolta and Silveray units – achieved H1 sales of ZAR4.85 billion ($340 million). That was 1.8% lower than last year, but Ralphs said the revenue decline was due to the closure of its Zonke business after it lost the national contract with South Africa’s Gambling Board for the monitoring of limited pay-out machines.
That aside, Ralphs said that the results for the six months to the end of December 2018 had been “exceptionally good”, especially given the pressures facing the traditional stationery and print markets.
Copier and print unit Konica Minolta was singled out for its strong performance ahead of a new contract roll-out with the National Treasury, while distributor Kolok achieved market share gains despite lower volumes.
At office products retailer Waltons, after a number of difficult years revenue was reported to have stabilised, costs come under control and gross margins maintained.
At stationery manufacturer and distributor Silveray, a shift from house brands along with product innovation drove good growth. Office furniture division Cecil Nurse, on the other hand, had a slow start to the financial year.
H1 operating profit at the Office and Print division was ZAR436 million, an increase of 8.3% from the previous year, while operating margin increased 80 basis points to 9%. The division’s EBITDA grew 8.4% to ZAR506 million.
On the interim results conference call, Ralphs called out the work to re-engineer the Copy and Print unit over the past couple of years by its CEO Kevin Wakeford and his team. For example, a new mobility division has been created to provide businesses with mobile computing and barcode solutions.
At the end of the call, Ralphs revealed that Executive Director Mpumi Madisa will be the next Bidvest Group CEO following a transition period over the next two years.
