Looking at today’s Q1 trading update in conjunction with its most recent results release in December (see here), it looks like IDOX is starting to deliver organic growth.
Organic growth within this recently acquisitive company is a metric we have been trying to tease out for some time. In its pre-AGM update, management said Q1 had seen positive organic growth in both the public sector and engineering information management divisions, and trading had exceeded expectations. Given that public sector revenue had either declined slightly or been ‘marginal’ when IDOX last released trading information (the difference depending on whether a one off deal was included or not), our feeling is that organic growth will still be the poor relation compared to acquisition-led uplift. However, positive territory is good and indicates better public sector performance as well as progress in the still relatively new engineering business. The indications are that IDOX is continuing to handle its diversification strategy well – eg it has combined its McLaren CTSpace acquisitions under a single management team, which will help gain market awareness in the engineering sector.
The other piece of excellent news is that it is planning a graduate recruitment initiative to expand its UK workforce.