This event was the opportunity to gather no less than 25 participants from our 8 core countries, including for the first time at an international level 8 agents, to develop their skills, make them discover Econocom Group and grow their internal network.

The Academy also included two new training modules on CSR and International deals, highlighting the business levers and opportunities for Econocom.

New joiners had the opportunity to meet Jean-Louis Bouchard, Operational Chairman of Econocom, during a welcome cocktail dinner. This was the occasion to remind the importance of agent model, as part of our Econocom DNA.

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 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 Mathilde Saint-Pol, Christoph Blaeser, Mario Romero, Sébastien Lesimple, Véronique di Benedetto, Amine Belfakir, Antonella Porta, Benoit Rétif, Pierre Toussaint, Lionel Slama, Pierre Llorens, Laurent le Deley and Pâquerette de Poncins for their precious contribution in making this Academy a success.

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.  

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• First-half revenue at €1,335 million, up 3.0%: this growth was driven by all businesses and is in line with 2024 guidance;
• Operating margin at €38.3 million, impacted by the significant investments engaged as planned to implement the plan in both the sales force and IT and security;
• Net financial debt reduced to €180 million at end-June 2024 (vs. €321 million at the end of June 2023) thanks to the sale of Les Abeilles, and solid free cash flow over the past 12 months;
• New governance to support the deployment of the strategic plan; appointment of Jean-Louis Bouchard and Angel Benguigui respectively as Operational Chairman and Group CEO.

Revenue growth across all businesses. A halh-year of investment

The Econocom Group generated revenue of €1,335 million in the first half of 2024, up 3.0% compared with the same period in 2023 (vs. +2.6% in Q1) with all businesses contributing to this growth. In organic terms, growth came to 2.9%, in the absence of major changes to the scope of consolidation.

Over the period, trends in continuing operations were as follows:

• Technology Management & Financing (TMF) posted revenue of €506 million, an increase of 6.1%, including +5.9% organic growth. The group is capitalising on the quality of its flexible, customised financing offers to expand sales in targeted geographical regions. In line with its strategic plan, in the first half, Econocom continues to pursue its investments to recruit Account Managers and agents and update operational sales tools. As a result, operating margin came to €14.6 million, down €2.5 million compared with H1 2023.
• Products & Solutions (P&S) revenue totalled €591 million, up 1.1%. After a first quarter which saw a 2.5% decline in business, growth recovered during the second quarter, driven by stronger trends in the European IT distribution market. Operating margin came to €14.4 million, down slightly by €1.1 million compared with H1 2023.
• At end-June 2024, the Services business reported revenue of €239 million, up 1.2% on a purely organic basis. Operating margin accordingly was €9.3 million, in line with the first half-year 2023.

Overall, the Group’s operating margin was €38.3 million.

Other operating income and expenses amounted to -€4.1 million, i.e. down by €0.3 million compared to the amount recorded for the same period in 2023.

After financial income of -€5.9 million, an income tax expense of -€9.3 million and profit (loss) from discontinued operations of €5.7 million, consolidated net profit totalled €23.1 million for the first half of 2024 vs. €24.7 million for the same period of the previous year.

Sharp decline in net financial debt

In line with the commitments made as part of the One econocom strategic plan for 2024-2028, the group launched its non-strategic asset divestment programme to help self-fund its external growth policy. As part of this programme, in early June, the group finalised the disposal of its Les Abeilles subsidiary, enabling it to raise just over half of the €180 million disposal proceeds planned as part of the One econocom plan.

Furthermore, over the past 12 months, the group generated €88 million in free cash flow thanks to efforts made by all of its entities to reduce their working capital requirements.

Thanks to these two impacts, net financial debt was down to €180 million at end-June 2024, compared with €321 million a year earlier. This level of indebtness at end-June is the lowest seen over the past 10 years at the same time.

New governance

The Econocom Board of Directors unanimously approved the separation of the roles of Chairman and CEO, as well as the appointment of Angel Benguigui as Group CEO.  Jean-Louis Bouchard, founder of Econocom, is now the Operational Chairman. Angel Benguigui will be able to rely on his support and advice, in keeping with the excellent dialogue and climate of trust they have built over their many years working together. An Executive Committee will be announced soon, to strengthen the skills and enhance the complementary profiles of the Management team.

2024 Outlook 

Given these strong trends at end-June, Econocom confirms its 2024 guidance of generating revenue growth of between 3% and 5%.

Next publication: information meeting on H1 2024 results, 25 July 2024

You will find the complete document in the resources. 

Today, on 24 July 2024, Econocom’s Board of Directors convened under the chairmanship of Jean-Louis Bouchard and unanimously endorsed a separation of the roles of Chairman and CEO and the appointment of Angel Benguigui as Group CEO. Jean-Louis Bouchard, Econocom’s founder, has now become the group’s Operational Chairman. Mr Benguigui will be able to rely on his support and advice, in keeping with the excellent dialogue and climate of trust they have built over their many years working together.

In regard to these decisions, Jean-Louis Bouchard, Econocom’s founding Chairman, said: ‘Angel Benguigui is an inspiring leader with outstanding knowledge of our business lines and recognised expertise in heading the group during a period of swift change and growth. He is perfectly ready for this new role, given his exemplary career path of around 20 years with Econocom and the central role he played in devising the “One Econocom” plan. At a time when the technology and digital transformation market is undergoing major changes, especially in cloud computing and artificial intelligence, Angel will oversee the implementation of our ambitious new strategic plan for 2024–28 and ensure its success. The Board of Directors and I have every faith in Angel and our teams to successfully navigate the next stages of our development, which promise to be exciting. Lastly, I’d like to thank Patrick Van Den Berg, who’s been a key player in Econocom’s development over the past two years.’

Angel Benguigui, the Econocom group’s CEO, said: ‘I’d like to thank the Board of Directors and Jean-Louis Bouchard for the trust they’ve placed in me. I’m honoured and determined to speed up Econocom’s development and make sure the new “One Econocom” strategic plan is implemented successfully, alongside our talented teams. I’m certain that Econocom has huge growth potential because of our group’s unique positioning, which covers our clients’ needs, end to end, for accessing essential digital devices.’

Patrick Van Den Berg is stepping down from his position in the group to pursue new career opportunities. Mr Van Den Berg joined Econocom in May 2022 as Deputy Managing Director for international activities and as Netherlands Country Manager, before becoming Managing Director in 2023.

Angel Benguigui will put together a new Executive Committee, which will soon be announced, to strengthen the areas of expertise and complementarity among the different senior management members.

Econocom’s Board of Directors is convinced that this new organisational structure will guarantee that the ‘One Econocom’ strategic plan is carried out successfully.

Angel Benguigui

Angel Benguigui is an Economics and Business Management graduate from the University of Madrid. He began his career in the Crédit Lyonnais group. For 18 years, he worked there successfully in corporate banking and specialist financing in Europe, before being appointed Managing Director for Spain. When Crédit Agricole acquired Crédit Lyonnais in 2003, he joined Calyon (which became Crédit Agricole CIB) as Deputy Managing Director for Spain and Portugal. He then joined Econocom in 2006 as Country Manager for Spain with the aim of developing distribution, financing and digital services at Econocom, mainly through a policy of targeted acquisitions. He achieved this with tremendous success. After serving on the group’s international committee, then its Executive Committee, for several years, he became Chief Financial Officer in 2019, then was appointed Managing Director in 2020 in charge of day-to-day management. In 2023, he joined the Board of Directors as an Executive Director, in charge of devising and implementing the ‘One Econocom’ strategic plan.