DCC ahead of budget, set to meet expectations

DCC announced today results in the first quarter to June 30 were ahead of budget and the company is confident it will meet market expectations for the coming year.

DCC plc, the value added sales, marketing and support services group, is holding its AGM in Dublin at 11am today,

Jim Flavin, chief executive/deputy chairman, will make a trading statement today.

The statement reads: "DCC's business is significantly second half weighted, with approximately two-thirds of operating profit generated in the second half of the year.

"Results in the first quarter to 30 June 2004 were ahead of budget and give confidence at this early stage that DCC is well positioned to meet market expectations for the year to 31 March 2005."

DCC achieved particularly strong profit growth in the IT distribution division, the healthcare division and the environmental division.

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 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 (homebuilding and supply chain management) are well ahead of the prior year.

DCC is also aggressively pursuing ambitious organic and acquisition growth.

"Good progress has been made in acquisition discussions in all core business areas. The acquisition by DCC Food & Beverage of Bottle Green Limited, the UK based wine sales & marketing business, which was announced yesterday, is the first of a number of acquisitions targeted for the current financial year," the trading statement says.

In its financial year to March 31, 2004, DCC had sales of €2.2bn and generated operating profits of €121m. DCC has delivered compound annual growth of 17.3% in adjusted earnings per share over the past 10 years.

DCC's shares are traded on the Irish and London Stock Exchanges.