Pest-control, hygiene and workwear services group Rentokil Initial said today (27 July) that its pretax profit rose to £240 million (H1 2022: £162m) for the first half of 2023, driven by growth across all regions and categories.
The Crawley-based company forecasts a “good performance” for the rest of 2023. Overall, it reports a rise in income of almost 70% to £2.7 billion, with operating profit up over 70% to £602 million, for the first six months of the year.
Revenue stood at £2.67 billion, up from £1.57 billion the previous year, arising from acquisitions, effective pricing to overcome inflationary costs and growth in every region. This included 5.2% revenue growth in its hygiene business and 5.6% growth in its pest-control arm.
‘Sustained trading momentum’
In the UK, the firm saw revenue of £192 million – 6.7% up on the same period last year. Despite a challenging economy, organic revenue here grew by 3.9%, with the hygiene & wellbeing sector rising by 3.2%, and pest control’s contribution showing a 10.4% rise.
Client retention in the UK improved to 86.7%, despite strong price increases (FY 22: 86.6%), as did staff retention, which strengthened to 83.7% (FY 22: 77.9%). The company made one acquisition during the period, acquiring Redditch-based Urban Planters, which supplies plants to retail properties, offices, restaurants and bars, with annualised revenue of £17 million.
Andy Ransom, CEO of Rentokil Initial plc, said: “Rentokil Initial has delivered a strong overall first-half performance. Our results show sustained trading momentum, with organic growth of 5.9%. The group enjoyed growth in every region and continued to benefit from effective pricing to manage inflationary costs. Revenue growth was further supported by another excellent period of M&A with 24 high-quality businesses acquired for a total consideration of £202 million. I am especially pleased with our progress in integrating Terminix. We are seeing clear evidence of density benefits with the start of the pilot programme and we remain firmly on track to deliver synergies. We start the second half of the year with continued confidence in our plans, both operational and strategic.”