Page 8 - Paragon Annual Report 2

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Strategic report | CEO statement
Statement from our CEO
“ The Group posted record results and continues on a rapid upward trajectory. ”
Patrick Crean
Chief Executive Officer
I am pleased to report a strong result for 2016/17. We have many positive developments
to report during the financial period. The Group posted record results and continues on a rapid upward growth trajectory while transforming into a value-adding, technology- driven company and a strategic partner to our clients.
Global expansion
The Group expanded its international footprint over the course of the financial year. We grew extensively in Europe. The acquisition of ASK added manufacturing capabilities in the USA
and we invested in further manufacturing facilities in Romania for the production of RFID ticketing and secure identification products.
The Group now has substantive operations in
15 countries and has sales in more than
45 countries worldwide. During the year, in line
with many other businesses we faced competition and market challenges in Scandinavia. We addressed this by making acquisitions to add scale and restructuring to reduce the number of locations and improve performance. We fully support our business and expect these efforts to be rewarded in the near future.
Outstanding new contract wins
Our outsourcing business continues to grow at pace. This year we secured several new contracts, including with a leading systems integrator in the UK and a prominent international financial services group in France. We have also secured, in a competitive environment, other significant contract wins with both new and existing customers, and see further opportunities as we bring our expanded offering and international capabilities to our growing client base.
“ We have substantive operations in 15 countries ”
A record year for acquisitions
This year we report on the biggest year of acquisitions in our history. In total, we completed eight significant acquisitions, adding over
€200 million in proforma turnover and significantly advancing our strategic objectives: first, to improve breadth and depth in our target industry and market segments, including e-identity, advanced data analytics and regulated industries; second, to enhance our profitability by improving our earnings profile, leveraging our scale and realising internal synergies; and third, to increase our market share in target geographies.
Our acquisition strategy has evolved to the next stage: focusing on scale, industry focus, and
profitability. While we will continue to opportunistically acquire value-adding
companies, we are now focused on building scale, specific capabilities
and technologies and earnings quality. Our most notable acquisitions in support of these goals this year were the UK
Customer Communications division of DST Systems, and ASK S.A., a Paris
Euronext publicly listed company which is a specialist in the ID sector. Post balance
sheet, we completed the acquisition of Docsellent GmbH, one of the leading providers
Paragon Group Limited – 05258175
of physical and electronic document output in Germany, to further strengthen our position in the sector.