Bytes shows resilience in first half of 2025

Bytes Technology Group has issued a first-half (H1) update that indicates the channel player is meeting expectations and showing resilience in a difficult market.

The firm shared its H1 trading update revealing that, for the six months ended 31 August, it was “trading substantially in line” with the expectations it laid out in its AGM statement that was shared at the start of July.

Gross invoiced income (GII) for the period is expected to be in the region of £1.33bn, gross profit should not be less than £82m and operating profit should come in at £33m or more.

The channel player ended H1 with around £82m in cash after paying £41m of final and special dividends and purchasing £1m shares in the period as part of the £25m repurchase programme that started in August.

Sam Mudd, Bytes CEO, said that the business had been building momentum through the first half: “We delivered a resilient performance, improving through the period as we successfully settled into our new corporate sales structure.

“We have a strong pipeline and we expect continued momentum into the start of the second half, albeit mindful that comparatives will be impacted by the particularly strong trading performance we saw in the past few months of the prior financial year.

“We remain confident in our growth strategy and believe we are well-positioned to benefit from the structural demand drivers we see in our markets, including cloud computing, cyber security and AI,” she added.

Bytes has been on a roll in terms of financial results, with its previous full-year results, shared back in May, indicating that the business had broken through the £2bn barrier with GII.

An increase of 15.2% enabled that milestone barrier to be overcome, with the firm indicating that gross profit had improved by 12% to reach £163.3m, with 8.9% corporate growth and 18.2% public sector growth along with double-digit improvements in software and services.

Speaking at the time about the prospects for its latest fiscal period, Mudd said that the foundations were there to keep the momentum going across the business. She stated that Bytes remains committed to a strategy of nurturing existing customer relationships, extending vendor partnerships, and leveraging the technical skills of its service delivery teams.

“The sustained demand in structural growth areas such as cloud, security and AI, our commitment to customer service, our expanding technical capabilities and our high levels of accreditation underpin our confidence for continued strong growth in our financial year 2025/26,” said Mudd.

The Bytes update comes just a week and a half after Computacenter shared its H1 numbers that indicated the firm’s UK business had returned to growth and the market was looking more positive after a difficult period where customer purse strings were tightened due to economic uncertainty.

The listed channel players, along with the likes of Softcat and Insight, act as bellwethers for those tracking the channel’s fortunes looking for a sense of how willing customers are to invest in IT, particularly growth areas including cloud, AI and security. So far, the general consensus is one of a UK market that is holding firm and rewarding those with the right portfolios that can show the resilience Mudd talks of in the Bytes H1 update.