Econocom is a pioneer in the circular digital economy and has taken a major step forward in its CSR approach with the launch of “Impact,” a digital medium embodying the company’s roadmap and its corporate social responsibility (CSR) commitments. This initiative is part of the “One Econocom” strategic plan, which places impact at the heart of its vision.

We’re now in a situation where it’s vital to measure not only our financial progress, but also our extra-financial progress. The launch of “Impact” perfectly aligns with this dynamic,” remarks Véronique di Benedetto.

Impact website and don’t hesitate to share!

BDS Observatory provides a fascinating insight into the global adoption curve of intelligent computers powered by artificial intelligence (AI). In this article we explore the predicted trajectory, the priorities of our key partners, the conceptual evolution and the impact of this technological revolution on our business.

Global adoption curve for AI-powered smart PCs

According to our analysis, intelligent computers with AI capabilities are expected to become the norm by 2025. We estimate that two out of three PCs will be equipped with this technology by 2027. In 2024 we’re already observing a 19% adoption rate of intelligent PCs!

Priorities for our partners

As a market leader and influencer, Microsoft is focusing its strategy on hybrids as an evolutionary model. There are indications that Microsoft is collaborating with PC manufacturers to design products with over 40 TOPS of performance to meet the requirements of the next-gen CoPilot system on Windows, potentially setting a new standard for AI-PCs in the Windows ecosystem.

Lenovo identifies opportunities in excess of €500 million in the field of AI across the EMEA region. With its visionary message “Imagine 2023,” HP is announcing that new PCs will showcase their expanded capabilities thanks to the integration of AI.

Conceptual evolution

Dedicated chips to accelerate AI are currently the norm. In the medium term, NPU (Neural Processing Unit) performance of 10 TOPS is anticipated and in the long term, the generation of text and images with language models of up to 13 billion is envisaged!

What are the potential impacts for Econocom and our sector?

Premiumisation: Advanced hardware specifications and productivity-enhancing capabilities will result in smart PCs being priced 10% to 15% higher than similar commercial models without embedded AI.

Faster renewal cycles: The rapid development of internal and external AI tools coupled with more frequent hardware upgrades will drive organizations to seek out the best experiences for smart PC deployments.

Associated AI services: Smart PCs will act as another point to deliver holistic AI services and solutions, playing a crucial role without mitigating the security and privacy concerns associated with running AI workloads on potentially sensitive enterprise data.

At ISE 2024, Europe’s largest audiovisual systems integration exhibition,which came to a close at the Fira Barcelona-Gran Via on February 2nd 2024, Econocom made its mark with a delegation of over 60 representatives from 8 countries determine to explore the latest innovations proposed by 850 exhibitors. Econocom Stories was also on hand to collect and share the key trends in this highly dynamic sector!

E-Paper display solutions attracted particular attention. These innovations focus on offering environmentally-friendly signage solutions. Highlights include full-colour E-Paper screens and a variety of sizes ranging from 13″ to 42″. Major players such as Sharp/NEC, Philips and E Ink are involved in these innovative solutions.

Significant developments in LED Walls were also noted. Samsung introduced its Transparent MICRO LED solution in Europe with a pitch of 0.6 mm, a first in Europe. LG, meanwhile, unveiled its Kinetic Led solution, specifically designed for public media art, and presented its all new large all-in-one LED screens for meeting rooms.

Econocom explored advances in conference room technology. Barco showcased its ClickShare system, offering advanced features for wireless collaboration and sharing during meetings. This technology aims to improve the efficiency of collaborative working environments.

Econocom’s participation at ISE 2024 provided a hands-on immersion into these technological advances, underlining the group’s ongoing commitment to staying abreast of major industry developments in order to offer the best services to its customers. As part of this commitment, Jean-Pierre Overbeek, Chief Executive Officer of Gather, expressed, “This 20th ISE showcased the latest technology and proved that the AV and Digital Signage industry have a bright future ahead with lots of innovation and show cases. The energy at the show was in 1 word terrific. Gather is looking forward to serve our customers with the best possible solutions from the industry.”

Press release issued on February 14th 2024 at the close of trading.

Strong resilience by Econocom’s business model
• Revenue of €2,681 million, up1 3.5%, including 1.2% organic growth2
• Operating margin3 of €116.2 million, up slightly on 2022
• Consolidated net profit of €62.6 million: earnings per share unchanged at €0.35 as in 2022
• 2023 performance in line with the initial key markers presented in November 2023 for the One econocom 2024-2028 strategic plan, targeting a revenue of 4 billion euros and a net result of 130 million euros in 2028.

Increase in revenue and operating margin from continuing operations
The Econocom Group generated revenue of €2,681 million in 2023, an increase1 of 3.5% compared with restated 2022 revenue. On a like-for-like basis, organic growth2 was 1.2%, demonstrating the Group’s ability to profit from its diversified and balanced positioning between its three activities in a mixed environment for the IT sector.
In accordance with the One econocom 2024-2028 strategic plan announced last November, the French “Apps, Cloud & Data” and “Les Abeilles” activities have been restated as “Assets held for sale” in accordance with IFRS 5. These companies are expected to be sold in the near future; talks are under way with potential buyers. The 2022 income statement has been adjusted accordingly as explained in the notes to this press release.
Over the period, trends in continuing operations were as follows:
• Products & Solutions (P&S) revenue totalled €1,207 million, down1 by 2.5% in reported terms and by 6.1% organically2. The market4 for distribution of digital workplace assets was in poor shape in 2023 (estimated to have decreased in Europe by between -11% and -15% for PCs, between -14% and -19% for smartphones and tablets). Even so the Group managed to limit the decline in its activity thanks largely to its combined offers with its other business lines. 2022 had benefited from a strong rebound effect (with organic growth of just over 15%), particularly in France, Germany and the United Kingdom, as the market recovered from post-Covid supply chain challenges. P&S operating margin3 accordingly was €43.3 million, an operating margin of 3.6%.
• Technology Management & Financing (TMF) accelerated its growth with revenue of €998 million in 2023, an increase1 of 11.2%, including 10% organic growth2. TMF’s solutions, offering personalised independent advice as well as a flexible contractual model, are particularly appreciated by customers in a context of tougher borrowing terms and increased pricing by banks. On the back of this revenue growth, particularly in Germany and Italy, the TMF operating margin3 rose1 strongly to €47.6 million, i.e. 4.8% of revenue compared to 3.3% in 2022.

• In line with previous quarters, Services maintained momentum at the end of the year. With revenue of €476 million, growth1 was an annualised 4.6% (4.5% in organic terms2). In a context marked of rising staff and energy costs, the Group was better at passing through these inflationary effects in the second half of the year. Margin increased from 4.3% in the first half of 2023 to 5.3% for the full-year with an operating margin3 of €25.3 million.

Total Group operating margin3, driven by the improvement of 1.5 points1 in margins at TMF, was €116.2 million compared to €114.2 million in 2022 restated.
Annual net income from continuing operations was €59.5 million compared to €49.3 million in 2022, after:
• other net operating expenses of €8.4 million, down significantly compared to 2022,
• financial income of -€19.8 million, compared to -€13.5 million in 2022, impacted by the significant increase in interest rates, and
• tax expense of €26.1 million, representing an effective tax rate5 of 28.6%.
After deducting the €3.1 million loss from discontinued operations, consolidated profit amounts to €62.6 million.
Econocom’s 2023 performance, in particular revenue, operating margin and net profit, are broadly in line with the starting key markers of the One econocom strategic plan, presented at the Capital Markets Day on 16 November 2023.

Net financial debt6 limited to 1.2x EBITDA and operating cash surplus of €28 million
Net financial debt6 remains well controlled; it stands at €181 million at 31 December 2023, representing 38% of shareholders’ equity and 1.2 times 2023 EBITDA.

Operating cash surplus (after taking into account €209 million of discounted future cash receipts from TMF own booked leases at the end of 2023), amounts to €28 million at 31 December 2023.

Shareholder remuneration
The Board of Directors will propose at the next General Meeting to repay shareholders €0.16 per share from the share premium, unchanged vs. 2023. Based on the average closing share price over the last 20 days, this represents a yield of 6.8%.
Total planned pay-outs in July 2024 would accordingly amount to €27.6 million, or 44.1% of 2023 net profit.

Outlook
In an expected more favourable context, particularly for the IT equipment distribution markets (P&S), the Group will continue in 2024 to roll out its One econocom plan, aimed at accelerating the organic growth of its business lines, strengthening synergies between the various business segments and developing its growth drivers in the audiovisual sector (launch of the Gather with Econocom brand). To achieve this, Econocom plans to significantly increase its sales force in the target regions and recruit new talent to strengthen the appeal and distribution of its offers.

Given a controlled level of net debt and cash flow strengthened by the disposals planned during the year, Econocom will also continue its search for external growth targets in 2024 looking to acquire specific expertises.

For 2024, the Group forecasts a total revenue growth between 3% and 5%.

Beyond 2024 and over the timeframe of its strategic plan to reach €4 billion in revenue and €130 million in net profit by 2028, Econocom will seek to capitalise on:
• strong growth expected in the workplace, audiovisual, infrastructure and network markets, growth partly driven by the investments made necessary by the rapid development of Artificial Intelligence;
• an acceleration of the deployment of Econocom’s offers covering end-to-end customer needs in terms of digital assets;
• a clear roadmap with ambitious objectives that can get all teams onboard;
• a self-financing plan with a now well-advanced disposal programme that will enable the Group to execute its strategic plan, including external growth.

Econocom has also built its 2024-2028 strategic plan around strong ambitions in terms of extra-financial performance, with a particular focus on the repairability and extending the life of its customers’ digital assets, carbon footprint and strengthening equal opportunities for all employees. Econocom thus confirms that it is aiming to achieve the Platinum level of the Ecovadis® Sustainability Rating by 2028.

Find out more in the press release attached. 

We were proud to hold the first edition of the Group TMF Sales Academy in Puteaux from January 29^th to February 1^st.

This event was the opportunity to gather no less than 22 TMF sales from 6 countries (mostly recent joiners) to develop their skills, make them discover Econocom Group and grow their internal network.

Sandrine Fievet, TMF training manager in charge of the French Sales Academy since 2014, explains: “designed as an immersive and tailored learning scheme, the Academy consists in several seminars aiming to provide a comprehensive knowledge of the TMF business. For this first 4-days seminar, the newcomers receive intensive trainings, presentations and best practices on sales skills (e.g. prospection, selling technics) from experienced trainers across different Group functions.”

“As one of the main levers of our strategic plan is to massively recruit salespeople, we are convinced that their onboarding is crucial to achieve our ambitions” comments Pâquerette de Poncins, BDS senior manager and ESA co-organizer.

The organizing team would like to thank Patrick Van Den Berg, Mathilde Saint-Pol, Christoph Blaeser, Philippe Hemmings, Jaroslaw Schwinge, Elzbieta Manjurka, Amine Belfakir, Antonella Porta, Luca Nanni, Guillaume Steible, Nicolas de Lepinay, Pierre Toussaint, Lionel Slama and Stéphane Pailler for their interventions and exchanges with the audience.

We would like also to thank all the attendees for their active involvement and look forward to seeing them again for the next steps of their training program.  

A dedicated post has been published on Econocom Group LinkedIn account, please do not hesitate to comment and share.

We invite you to respect the privacy and not to publish on social networks photos of other people without their prior consent.

The group recently published a letter outlining its decarbonising pledges as part of its ambitious strategic plan ‘One Econocom’. These commitments can be passed on to Econocom’s stakeholders.

This letter is specially designed to go hand in hand with our sales offers. Its purpose is to illustrate our positioning as a committed player in the circular economy. It is an extra tool that can be used to promote our approach, with an underlying commitment from our senior management based on three pillars as part of the ‘One Econocom’ strategic plan.

The first pillar is a reduction of our direct emissions. Indeed, Econocom has undertaken to reduce its emissions by 60% by 2028, compared to its emissions in 2018. This process will reduce our emissions by around 6% per year on average. Moreover, the group is committed to an energy transition: it plans for 90% of its energy sources to be green by 2028.

The second pillar is a reduction of our indirect emissions. Our main aim is to ensure that all our key suppliers respect the standards of the Science-Based Targets initiative* by 2028. In doing so, we aim to reduce by 50% our emissions relating to products and services bought by 2032, which will amount to a reduction of 6% per year on average.

Lastly, there is the third pillar: speeding up our development of innovative, eco-friendly offers and services. We are a responsible digital company out of conviction. So we undertake to expand our responsible offers and thereby help reduce our clients’ carbon footprint from digital technology.

Our progress along the path to these aims will always be tracked. A chart mapping the group’s carbon footprint will be published each year. For this approach to be implemented on a daily basis, it requires everyone to act responsibly. We need strong, collective willpower from the whole group to meet the environmental challenges of today and tomorrow.

*The Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi) is an initiative taken by international experts that uses scientific criteria to assess whether changes in greenhouse gas emissions from a firm or organisation are in line with the aim of limiting the planet’s average temperature rise to 2°C or 1.5°C.