Sales, marketing and support services group DCC has reported an 11% increase in full year operating profits to over £589m.
DCC's revenues for the year to the end of March rose by 32% to £17.732 billion from £13.412 billion the previous year on the back of higher energy commodity prices.
While surging energy prices boosted its performance, DCC's healthcare division recorded the highest percentage growth in the year.
DCC has proposed an 11.2% increase in the final dividend to 119.93 pence per share, which when added to the interim dividend of 55.85 pence per share, gives a total dividend for the year of 175.78 pence per share.
It said this represents a 10% increase over the previous year's dividend of 159.80 pence per share and marks the company's 28th consecutive year of dividend growth.
During the year, the company reported continued momentum in acquisition activity with about £600m spent, including the purchase of Almo, DCC's largest acquisition to date.
DCC also today announced an updated strategy for its energy business, including the creation of DCC Energy.
This will be a new divisional and management structure which is aligned with the company's aim of leading customers in their transition to lower carbon and renewable energies.
The company set out its capital allocation priorities to accelerate the transition capability of DCC Energy and a 2050 or sooner net zero target for carbon emissions.
It said it expects that the year to the end of March 2023 will be another year of profit growth and development, notwithstanding the challenging macro environment at present.
Donal Murphy, DCC's chief executive, said the company delivered an excellent performance in a challenging macro environment, with profit growth across each of its divisions, which he said again demonstrated the resilience of the business.
"Our colleagues around the group continued to deliver for our healthcare, technology and energy customers and other stakeholders, ensuring the supply of DCC's essential products and services," Mr Murphy said.
"Separately, this morning we are announcing an updated strategy for our activities in the energy sector. We are committed to leading our customers in their energy transition by providing
innovative and cleaner energy solutions that will help them to achieve their net zero goals," he said.
"We are ambitious to build DCC into a global leader in our chosen sectors. We have the platforms, opportunities and capability to do so. Although the world is experiencing a particularly volatile period and supply chain disruption is elevated, DCC is well positioned to grow and develop with momentum," he added.
Breaking down its divisions, the company said the DCC LPG business performed strongly during the year with operating profit increasing by 2.8% to £237.7m.
DCC said the profit growth was achieved despite the backdrop of both very substantial increases and volatility in the wholesale cost of product, with average product cost almost doubling during the year.
Volumes increased by 15.8% driven by the reopening of economies and acquisition activity in the US and Ireland, it added.
The company noted that in Ireland and the UK the business experienced a strong recovery in commercial volumes. It also grew its market share through oil to LPG conversions that lower customer carbon emissions by about 20%.
In December 2021, DCC bought Naturgy's power and gas marketing operations in Ireland. It said the deal adds "innovative energy transition expertise" in biomethane, direct renewable electricity power purchase agreements and solar solutions. The business has performed in line with expectations since its purchase.
The DCC Retail & Oil division saw "excellent growth" during the year, with operating profit increasing to £169.4m, an increase of 17%.
It sold 11.6 billion litres of product, an increase of 14% on the previous year and DCC said the "significant" volume increase was driven by a strong recovery in commercial, retail and fuel card volumes, which had been adversely impacted by Covid-19 restrictions.
Meanwhile, the DCC Healthcare business generated operating profit growth of 22.9%, of which about two-thirds was organic.
DCC said the very strong organic performance was driven by DCC Vital, which generated excellent organic profit growth across Britain, Ireland and the DACH region.
DCC Health & Beauty Solutions performed well against a challenging operational backdrop and saw a boost from the first-time contribution of Wörner, acquired in April 2021.
And DCC Technology also reported very strong operating profit growth of 12.8%, boosted by the contributions from acquisitions completed during the year. DCC said the very strong performance was achieved despite a challenging supply chain environment.
