Business support services group DCC said today it had performed well in its first quarter and was well-positioned to meet market expectations for its financial year to end-March 2005.
The company expects approximately two thirds of operating profit to be generated in the second half of the year.
In a trading statement delivered at the company's annual general meeting today in Dublin Jim Flavin, CEO said that results in the first quarter to 30 June 2004 were ahead of budget and that he was confident that DCC would meet market expectations for the year to March 31 2005.
Flavin said DCC achieved strong profit growth in the IT distribution division, healthcare and the Environmental division.
He pointed out that the significant increase in the price of oil in the first quarter has had a short term impact on the profits of the Energy division but it is expected that the Energy budget for the year as a whole will be attained.
DCC's Food & Beverage division achieved modest profit growth and the profits of Other activities are well ahead of the prior year.
DCC is aggressively pursuing organic and acquisition growth and the acquisition by DCC Food & Beverage of Bottle Green Limited, the UK based wine sales & marketing business is the first of a number of acquisitions targeted for the current financial year.
In its financial year to 31 March 2004, DCC had sales of €2.2bn and generated operating profits of €121m.
Shares in DCC closed up 25 cent at €14.85.
