This article is more than 1 year old

Life after Lord Shugs looks good, as Viglen directors' packages swell

Financials out for Westcoast Holding-owned XMA, Viglen

Being a director at Viglen has become considerably more lucrative since Lord Shugs offloaded the tech supplier to Westcoast Holdings.

The last standalone financials from both Viglen and sister firm XMA (the pair have been integrated) were filed at Companies House and make for remarkably boring reading, but in a good way.

The smaller of the two, Viglen, acquired in January last year as we exclusively revealed, reported sales of £90.7m for the 15 months ended 31 December 2014, up nearly 24 per cent on the previous 12 month period.

The sale to Westcoast “created the opportunity to sell the Viglen product range to a wider customers base and to offer a much wider selection of product into the Viglen customer base”, the director’s report stated.

Operating costs went up 26 per cent to £88.2m resulting in an operating profit of £2.45m, compared with £3.1m in the prior 15 month slot. And after the tax man took a share, net profit was £1.96m, down 18.4 per cent.

Included in the rise in operating cost was a marked rise in the cost of raw materials and consumables, up 21.6 per cent to £73.1m and staff costs that swelled more than 60 per cent to £11.87m, both impacted by the extended year.

Under staff costs, wages and salaries went up to £10.6m from £6.5m with the average number of staffers rising to 240 from 187.

Viglen directors were paid £809k in total, up from £294k in 2013. The highest paid director, believed to be Viglen boss Bordn Tkachuk, was handed £657k, up from £245k. The accounts indicate the other director Michael Ray was therefore paid £152k.

El Chan is not sure if the two directors wages included earn-out bonuses - as is often the case when senior staff transfer with a business that has been sold. The P&L accounts did not confirm if this was the case.

During the year, a dividend of £5.6m (Feb) and £1.5m (November) was paid out.

Over at reseller arm XMA, revenue in the 12 months ended 31 December went up 35 per cent or £57.9m to £222.3m. But a good whack of the growth came from the acquired QC Supplies, a deal that was exclusively revealed by The Channel.

In the last set of figures for QC covering the year to 31 March 2013, it turned over £44.7m, so it looks like XMA add some organic growth last year.

The cost of goods sold was £198.7m, up 34.4 per cent year-on-year but in line with revenue growth. Admin expenses climbed 28 per cent to £19.9m, which is the consequence of taking on the supplies firm.

Staff numbers went up to 313 from 266 in the previous financial year, and director emoluments shot up to £426k from £201k, but directors Duncan Forsyth, Sunil Madhani, Ray and Tkachuk were not covered by this.

Operating profit came in at £4.14m, compared with £3.43m in the prior year and after tax, net profit was £3.2m, up from £2.58. ®

More about

More about

More about

TIP US OFF

Send us news


Other stories you might like