Exertis potentially up for sale as DCC doubles down on energy business

The distributor’s owner revealed it will be spending its energy on its ‘largest growth opportunity’

Exertis is potentially up for sale as parent company DCC has announced an impending strategic review in the next 24 months following a pivot to a more lucrative sector.

In a strategy update, titled precisely what it aims to do, LSE-listed DCC announced plans to switch focus to its energy business.

The FTSE 100-listed company said it believed its energy business presents the “largest growth opportunity” at strong returns, available to the group.

This means DCC will review its strategic options for DCC Technology, following completion of its value-enhancing operational improvement programme, within the next 24 months.

DCC stated the change will “simplify” operations, “maximise shareholder value” and “accelerate the growth” of each of DCC’s three divisions - DCC Energy, DCC Healthcare and DCC Technology, which trades as Exertis.

“In the energy sector we are building a unique, multi-energy, sustainable business focused on supporting our customers with their energy transition. Our strategy will deliver strong profit growth, high returns and a significant reduction in our customers carbon emissions,” said DCC plc CEO Donal Murphy.

“Our healthcare and technology divisions have a long and successful heritage in DCC. They are high quality businesses, led by strong, entrepreneurial management teams. Our actions are designed to ensure that these businesses and our people have the best opportunity to grow and progress.”

DCC has begun preparations for the sale of DCC Healthcare, expected to complete in 2025.

Tim Griffin, CEO of Exertis IT, said: “We’re excited by the opportunities that DCC’s strategic update presents. This is a great opportunity for our technology division as we explore the possibility of new ownership.

“Our focus remains as ever on delivering for our customers and vendor partners. DCC’s strategic update provides another opportunity for us all to grow and progress, and we’d like to reassure our customers and vendors of our commitment to them, to adding value, to delighting all our partners and enabling their success.”

All changes at Exertis

The £1.7bn-UK revenue distribution giant made its own big announcement recently, revealing plans to restructure and reposition itself as a specialist B2B distributor.

The goal is to offer more tailored solutions to better support customers’ businesses, launching two new divisions, business and consumer by way of doing so.

The business division will focus on high-growth areas such as AV, components, IT solutions, mobile and print.

With the consumer division, the company will continue to target the retail market, while making targeted improvements to elevate its service.

“These changes are designed to make us more agile and responsive to the market, while fully leveraging our specialist knowledge and optimised services,” said Tim Griffin, CEO of Exertis.