RS Group, formerly know as Electrocomponets, released their trading statement for the fourth quarter ended March 2023 on Wednesday. The update revealed slowing revenue growth across the group, but the company were confident profit for the year would exceed expectations.
RS Group has a broad product range including electrical and testing equipment, and lines of semiconductors and microprocessors.
All three of their geographies experienced slowing revenue growth in Q4 with sales contracting in the Americas (-4%) and Asia Pacific (-15%) regions. EMEA like-for-like revenue growth slowed to 6% from 12% in Q3. Group revenue grew just 1% in Q4.
RS attributed the poor performance in Asia to Chinese lockdowns and ongoing geopolitical issues, as well as problems in the semi conductor supply chain.
Despite slowing revenue figures, RS Group said they expected operating profit for the year to be ahead of expectations as margin improved slightly.
“Effective execution and the ongoing hard work, enthusiasm and passion of our people has led to a very strong performance in 2022/23 and we anticipate full year adjusted operating profit to be slightly ahead of consensus expectations,” said David Ega, RS Group Chief Financial Officer.
Investors did not share their enthusiasm and passion on Wednesday and shares in the group were down over 4% at the time of writing.