Softcat Plc Annual Report and Accounts 2019 Strategic Report / Corporate Governance / Financial Statements
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TAKING IT TO THE NEXT Softcat plc Softcat Annual Report and Annual Report LEVEL Annual Report and Accounts 2019 Accounts 2019 Accounts All images to be updated TAKING IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL Our goal is simple: to be the leading IT infrastructure product and services provider in terms of employee engagement, customer satisfaction and shareholder returns. We hope our success will create opportunities for our people and deliver growth for our customers and partners. We don’t take ourselves too seriously and were founded in 1993 to be, first and foremost, a fun place to work. In a crowded field we stand out because of the vibrancy of our culture and the passion, intelligence and attitude of our people. This approach has helped us deliver 14 consecutive years of organic gross invoiced income and operating profit growth, 92% employee engagement and 96% customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction 96% FY19 operational highlights • Revenue growth: 24% • Gross profit growth: 21% • Operating profit growth: 24% • Cash conversion: 92% • Growth achieved across all business Find out more at: lines, offices and customer segments softcat.com • Employee engagement: 92% • Customer satisfaction: 96% Customer • Customer numbers up by 400 numbers up by • Gross profit per customer growth: 17% 400 Pages 1 to 33 form the Strategic Report of Softcat plc for the financial year ended 31 July 2019. The Strategic Report has been approved by the Board of Softcat plc and signed on behalf of the Board by Graeme Watt, CEO, and Graham Charlton, CFO. All images to be updated Strategic report / Corporate governance / Financial statements Strategic report IFC FY19 operational highlights 1 Financial highlights 2 At a glance 4 Chair’s statement 6 Chief Executive Officer’s statement 9 Our strategy 10 Our markets 12 Our business model 14 Our offering 16 Our people 18 Our customers 20 Our vendors 22 Chief Financial Officer’s review 24 KPIs 26 Principal risks 30 Sustainability Corporate governance 35 Introduction to governance 36 Board of Directors 38 Governance report 46 Audit Committee report 52 Nomination Committee report 56 Remuneration Committee report 86 Directors’ report Financial statements 94 Independent auditor’s report 101 Statement of profit or loss and other comprehensive income 102 Statement of financial position 103 Statement of changes in equity 104 Statement of cash flows 105 Notes to the financial statements 132 Company information and contact details Financial highlights Gross profit £m Operating profit £m Customer numbers ’000 19 211.1 19 84.5 19 12.3 18 175.2 18 68.0 18 11.9 17 136.3 17 50.2 17 11.4 16 120.7 16 42.2 16 10.7 15 102.8 15 39.6 15 9.9 Gross profit per customer £’000 Revenue £m* Cash conversion % 19 17.2 19 991.8 19 92 18 14.7 18 797.2 18 98 17 12.0 17 97 16 11.3 16 85 15 10.3 15 132 * Revenue has been restated due to the adoption of IFRS 15. As a result revenue is only available on a comparable basis for 2019 and 2018. For more information, see pages 22 and 23 Annual Report and Accounts 2019 Softcat plc 1 At a glance A STRONG ROBUST INVESTMENT We do many things but, put simply, we help commercial CASE and public sector organisations find the right digital infrastructure for their needs, and then we procure it for them. We can also implement that infrastructure as well as deliver a range of ongoing support and managed services. 1 A dedicated and passionate team We believe that if people enjoy what they do, and care about the company they work for, they will do it better. Our culture is the vital ingredient to realising our ultimate goal: to provide outstanding service to customers. 1,330 92% Number of employees Employee engagement at 31 July 2019 To read more, see pages 16 and 17 2 Proven customer excellence We provide much the same technology as our competitors. What makes us different is the passion and dedication of our people to the service they provide. SMB Public sector 96% Enterprise Customer satisfaction To read more, see pages 18 and 19 2 Softcat plc Annual Report and Accounts 2019 Strategic report / Corporate governance / Financial statements 3 Market-leading growth and financial strength We have delivered 14 consecutive years of gross invoiced income and profit growth, all of which has been organic. The business has no debt and a strong track record of cash generation. £79.3m Net cash at 31 July 2019 To read more, see pages 22 and 23 4 A technology offering that is both broad and deep We advise, design, procure, implement and manage technology for businesses and public sector organisations, ranging across software licensing, workplace technology, networking, security, cloud and datacentre. We work with all of the leading global technology manufacturers to provide our customers with the broadest possible choice of solutions to suit their needs. 17% Increase in gross profit per customer To read more, see pages 14 and 15 5 Strong partner relationships We partner with hundreds of different software and hardware vendors to bring the latest and broadest range of technology to our customers, as well as numerous specialist service providers to augment the capabilities of our growing in-house teams. 200+ Number of vendors and partners To read more, see pages 20 and 21 3 Chair’s statement CAPACITY FOR FUTURE GROWTH MARTIN HELLAWELL CHAIR Our Company values are captured Let me start by thanking Softcat’s team members, customers and in four key words: suppliers for their part in what has been another very strong year for the Company. In particular I would like to thank Graeme Watt, who very successfully completes his first full financial year as CEO; Graham Charlton, our CFO; and my fellow Non-Executive Directors of the Board for their part in our continued success. RESPONSIBLE Performance Softcat has enjoyed many years of consistent top and bottom-line We conduct our business with a strong code of ethics growth but I thought this last financial year was particularly good. and demand honesty and integrity. We take social We went into the year with a degree of caution due in large part responsibility seriously and strive for equality and diversity. to the very strong previous financial year and the challenge of significantly outperforming that against a backdrop of some economic uncertainty. That caution was unfounded and the team delivered, and some, once again. Softcat outperformed INTELLIGENT the market, which itself continued to be buoyant. We saw very strong performance on all our key metrics during the year. Growth in gross profit, our primary measure of income, We run our business intelligently and look to was 21% to £211.1m. Growth in operating profit was 24% to £84.5m. continuously improve it for the good of employees, Revenue growth was 24% with software, hardware and services customers and shareholders alike. all delivering double-digit growth. We invested record levels in people across the business for future growth and I was particularly pleased to see the investments FUN Graeme and the team made in making Softcat an even better place to work for our employees and in our capability to serve multinational customers across the globe. We promote a positive, optimistic and energising It was good to see very strong performance across the sector environment where our employees can come to both in the UK and overseas with the vast majority of our peers work and enjoy it. We celebrate success and putting out good numbers as well. The need for companies to value humility. seek competitive advantage by ever smarter digital capability continues unabated and our sector is a direct beneficiary of that. During the year, I was delighted that Softcat won the prestigious PLC ‘Company of the Year’ award. This award is open to all public PASSIONATE companies and focuses on businesses which are well managed and have a sound strategy. To gain this recognition is a true indicator of how far we have come since our IPO four years ago. We are positive and enthusiastic and we want to do an outstanding job for customers and partners, delivering More information on how we performed can be found in the world-class levels of service. Chief Executive’s Statement on pages 6 to 8 and Financial Review on pages 22 and 23. 4 Softcat plc Annual Report and Accounts 2019 Strategic report / Corporate governance / Financial statements I was delighted that Softcat won the involved all levels of employees in Board meetings, we rotate meetings between offices, we hold ‘meet the Board’ sessions prestigious PLC ‘Company of the Year’ for all employees and the Board is given extensive employee award. This is a true indicator of how far we feedback information at each Board meeting. To further enhance this we have created a new position as have come since our IPO four years ago.” Designated Non-Executive Director for Employee Engagement and we have remunerated this position in the same way as other PLC Board matters Chairs of Committees in the Company. Vin Murria has been We conducted an external Board effectiveness review at the end of appointed to this position and is formulating the programme. the financial year, the results of which were very positive. We have She has already held a number of sessions directly with employees a cohesive Board with a good mix of personality styles and skills. and approached this with her well known enthusiasm and vigour! Board meetings are interactive, lively and dare I say occasionally fun! The Board equally embraces the desire for the Company At the beginning of the year I wrote to our top 50 shareholders to consider its contribution to society and in relation to other and the main proxy voting agencies offering to meet or speak stakeholders.