Columbus A/S launches new growth strategy – New Heights
Company announcement no. 22/2023
Today, Columbus launches its new three-year strategy covering
2024 – 2026. The strategy builds on top of the streamlined
foundation created during our three-year Focus23 strategy, now
adding additional growth tracks by entering the Life Science
industry as well as acquisitions within high-growth service areas.
The new ambitious long-term goal is 10% compounded annual growth
rate (CAGR) and a significant improvement in profitability with an
EBITDA margin of 15% by the end of 2026.
Building on top of streamlined foundationDuring
the last three years we have streamlined our business transforming
from a software implementation partner to a global digital
transformation partner while delivering profitable growth. We now
have a market position in the sweet spot where strong business
advisory and deep technical expertise meets delivery
responsibility. As digital advisors, we advise as industry experts
and make digital transformation happen.
A key element in the Focus23 strategy has been to focus on
serving larger customers within our key industries Manufacturing,
Retail & Distribution and Food & Beverage as a lifetime
partner, thus improving cross-selling and customer satisfaction.
Around 85% of our customers continue their partnership with us year
after year underlining our determined focus on delivering constant
customer value. During the past three years, we have increased the
average annual account revenue by 29%. We continue to work with
larger more complex customers fulfilling our ambition of
transitioning our customer base towards larger customers in our key
industries.
Today, we have a streamlined and focused business. We have
divested non-focus areas such as our software business To-Increase
and have stepped out of markets such as Russia and the Baltics. In
addition, we have strengthened our business model with a new
operating model with global delivery capacity and local market
presence while increasing transparency in our business with a new
global business platform.
Our direction in Focus2023 has created value and we will
continue to:
- Improve our advisory capabilities and strengthen our market
position as digital advisors
- Focus on increasing customer engagement with larger customers
in our key industries
- Build on our global delivery capacity and access to talent
We are also ready to enter the Life Science industry with high
synergies to our existing core business, namely within Food &
Beverage, which all together will improve revenue growth. Our
growth in the coming three years will be created both organically
and through acquisitions.
Proven leader in delivering core business technology and
lasting valueOur strategic ambition for the coming
three-year period is to “become a proven leader in
delivering core business technology and lasting value in our key
industries; Manufacturing, Retail & Distribution, Food
& Beverage and Life Science”. We aim to continue our strong
topline growth with 10% compounded annual growth over the period,
while expanding our EBITDA margin to 15% by end 2026 – a
significant improvement.
Ambitious financial topline goals – 10%
annuallyWe are confident that we can continue our strong
topline growth in the coming years with a goal of 10% compounded
annual growth. We expect to continue to gain market shares and to
deliver revenue above DKK 2bn by 2026.
We will leverage our strong foundation that currently
outperforms competitors and get even better at our winning formular
of increasing cross-sales and focusing on larger customers in our
key industries. We have grown 14% in Q3 2023 YTD against our
primary market growing just 7%.
In addition, we will add acquisitive growth to further expand
our service portfolio and strengthen our footprint in key
markets.
The revenue growth will be driven by:
- Expansion and investment in our service
portfolio
We have a strong financial position to invest in new services to
expand our service portfolio and strengthen our market position in
our geographical markets. We have recently acquired ICY Security to
expand our service offerings within the high-growth area of cyber
security. We will continue to invest in services which complement
our service portfolio and solve complex industry challenges such as
supply chain disruptions, ESG compliance and automation
pressures.
- Expanding our playing field by entering Life
Science
We will enter the Life Science industry with high potential and
synergies to our existing core business. In recent years, we have
experienced an increased demand for our services from Life Science
companies, and we already serve customers in the industry with good
references such as Bavarian Nordic. We have strong partnerships
with validation partners in the industry.
- Seize market opportunity as lifetime
partner
The transition to cloud accelerates our operations business as
we take ownership of evolving and managing our customers’ digital
capabilities in the cloud. Our ambition is to help our customers in
all areas of their digital transformation journey, thus increasing
our ability to offer a broad range of services and increase
recurring revenue.
Reach 15% EBITDA margin by 2026We see
significant potential to increase profitability. We have room to
improve efficiency as we mature our business, strengthen our
commerciality and leverage our global business model even more. As
part of our new growth strategy, we are launching our EBITDA15
program with concrete initiatives to reach an EBITDA margin of 15%
by 2026, consisting of the following elements:
- Increased project value delivered, translating
to higher price points and better project execution.
- Changed delivery mix in relation to shoring
and seniority will improve margins.
- Efficiency improvement through better
utilization of available customer facing hours and larger
engagements.
- Better utilization of our scalable model with
global functions and other support staff diminishing in ratio to
growing delivery organization.
The new strategy will take effect from 1 January 2024.
Presentation of New Heights on 15 November
2023New Heights will be presented on a live webcast and
conference call today at 13:00 CET. The webcast is hosted by CEO
& President Søren Krogh Knudsen and Corporate CFO Brian
Iversen.
Webcast: Please login to the webcast via
Columbus’ investor site where you can follow the presentation and
submit your written questions during the call:
https://ir.columbusglobal.com/calendar-and-events
Conference call: 1. Participants are required
to register in advance of the conference using the link provided
below. Upon registering, each participant will be provided with
Participant Dial In Numbers, and a unique Personal PIN.2. In the 10
minutes prior to call start time, Participants will need to use the
conference access information provided in the e-mail received at
the point of registering. Participants may also use the call me
feature instead of dialling the nearest dial in number.
Online Registration to the call:
https://register.vevent.com/register/BI93da014605ed40cdad1324369655aba3
Questions can be sent in advance by email to Communication
Director Tine Rasmussen at tra@columbusglobal.com or can be raised
at the question session during the webcast.
A recorded version of the presentation will be available on the
website after the webcast has concluded.
Live presentation of New Heights on 22 November
2023H C Andersen Capital will host a live presentation of
Q3 2023 results and new strategy on 22 November 2023 at 15:30 CET.
Presenters from Columbus A/S will be CEO & President Søren
Krogh Knudsen and Group CFO Brian Iversen.
You can already now submit questions and sign up for the event
via this link:
https://www.inderes.dk/videos/columbus-presentation-of-q3-2023-results-and-new-strategy
A recording of the presentation will be available via the same
link.
Ib
Kunøe
Søren Krogh KnudsenChairman of the
Board
CEO & President
For further information, please contact:
CEO & President, Søren Krogh Knudsen, tel: +45 70 20 50
00
- SE_22_2023_Columbus_announces_new_growth_strategy
Columbus A/s (LSE:0NPJ)
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