Dicker Data returned to double digit sales growth in the six months ending June 30 2025, reporting an “accelerated PC refresh” and “AI driven deals” amid a “subdued” SMB market – though its gross profit margin declined.
The company’s statutory revenue increased 14.3 per cent to $1.2 billion in the six-month period, compared with the first six months in 2024, which the company described as “a comparably soft prior half year period, evidenced by subdued overall market conditions as well as higher interest rates”.
Gross revenue rose to $1.8 billion in the first six months of 2025, a 15.7 per cent increase when compared with the first half of last year.
EBITDA for the first half of 2025, excluding one-off costs, was up 9.4 per cent to $75.4 million compared with the first half of last year.
Net profit after tax increased 11.1 percent to $39.4 million compared with the same period in 2024.
However gross profit margin declined to 9.1 per cent from to 9.8 per cent in the first six months of 2024.
Executive Director and Chief Financial Officer, Mary Stojcevski stated that the decrease in gross profit margin was “reflective [of] our deliberate strategic shift towards higher value, lower margin enterprise business in light of the ongoing subdued nature of the SMB market.”
“Increased upfront investment into growing our software business also impacted the margin result, however we expect to see the results of these investments benefitting the Company in the second half,” Stojcevski stated.
Windows 10 refresh kicks in, but SMB device sales soft
The company said it is seeing the Windows 10 refresh opportunity come to fruition, with device sales growth increasing to double digits through H1 FY25.
“This trend appears to be further accelerating, particularly as businesses in the enterprise, mid-market and heavily regulated segments mobilise ahead of the projected supply chain uncertainty that may result through the back end of this calendar year, and into 2026 as a result,” it reported.
“Notwithstanding this, SMB device sales have remained soft throughout H1FY25, with the Windows 10 refresh opportunity specifically for SMBs now expected to extend over the next 12 months.”
“Meaningful” AI-related transactions
“Meaningful large-scale AI related transactions” were also a driver of revenue growth.
Dicker Data talked-up its selection by Dell Technologies to supply the technology to build what it described as Australia’s first “sovereign AI factory”, A1-F1.
Located in Melbourne, the first stage of the A1-F1 deployment provided a “significant contribution to the first half results”.
“Australia is getting a lot of attention [in terms of AI] and a lot of vendors and partners are investing in Australia,” said Dicker Data executive director and COO Vlad Mitnovetski.
“The next couple of years is going to drive a huge difference in our everyday life and how we operate, but most importantly, it brings one of the biggest growth opportunities that Dicker Data have ever had before.”
Mitnovetski cited Garter’s prediction that Australian IT spending would increase 8.7 per cent this year to $147 billion compared with spending in 2024. Spending on software, cybersecurity and risk management are predicted to increase by double digit percentages.
Dicker Data also flagged its distributorship with CrowdStrike, announced earlier this year.
“Cyber security is one of the biggest growth opportunities that the company has and having CrowdStrike as part of the portfolio is great,” Mitnovetski said.
“Software was our absolute star performer in H1, the cyber security space was booming quite nicely and we are taking share from some of our competitors.”
International expansion still on the cards
Mitnovetski said the company has “started slowly to look at different potential markets” outside Australia and New Zealand.
David Dicker, the distributor’s founder and former chief executive, told techpartner.news earlier in the year that Singapore and the Philippines were two locations in South East Asia where the distributor was aiming to build a presence in.
“The people who we have there are servicing the Australia and New Zealand market - we don't have any business outside of ANZ at the moment - but what we're doing, we're getting a little bit of a feel for the markets,” Mitnovetski said this week.
“We're talking to different vendors and we're seeing if organic growth could be explored. We’re also open to see if there is any opportunity for smaller type of acquisitions. There's so much opportunities in ANZ at the moment, so we're just trying to understand the opportunity in other markets.
“The way we're thinking about going into international markets is probably through our software division, our digital platform, and the value-added partnerships that we currently have.
A lot of global partners who are dealing with us would love to see us to provide their services in other markets as well, so we’re currently gathering a lot of information, learning, and building expertise.”
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