2010
2010 was another record year for Proact; sales rose to almost SEK 1.4 billion, with a profit before tax of SEK 70 million, giving us a margin before tax of 5.1 %. Profits were up 17 % compared with 2009. The first six months of the year were strong and were followed by a slightly weaker third quarter and a very strong fourth quarter, with growth of 33 % adjusted for currency effects and with a margin before tax of 6.4 %. The profit before tax has been better than the corresponding quarter in the previous year for the 24th quarter in a row.
Proact Finance, which was launched in 2009, has undergone strong growth over the year, and future contracted cash flows as at 31 December 2010 amount to SEK 61 million. Proact's range of operating and cloud-based services is being received well on the market. The combination of cloud-based services and finance through Proact Finance provides the company with a competitive advantage.
Early on in the year, the way in which profits developed in the Netherlands - where the company was launched in 2008 - indicated that Proact's effective business model can be established on new markets. As well as a few minor supplementary acquisitions in the Nordic countries, agreements were entered into concerning the acquisition of Storyflex, a company operating in Slovakia and the Czech Republic, over the fourth quarter of 2010.
New recruitment is an important factor for continuing growth on both new and established markets. Proact has taken on 64 new employees over the year.
2009
Also 2009 was a record year for Proact – in spite of the uncertainty as to how the financial markets would develop and the general financial downturn. The company’s turnover and also its profit before tax grew by 20 % to SEK 1 253 million and SEK 60 million respectively, which is the company’s best result ever. According to independent research company IDC the markets where Proact is active contracted by 1 %. In other words, with its growth Proact reinforced its position and gained market shares. The public sector has during 2009 become the company’s biggest market.
Over the year Proact started its own finance company Proact Finance. The company offers to the market financing solutions incorporating everything Proact has to offer, which includes both systems (hardware and software) and services (consultancy, support, operation and “Storage-on-demand”). Proact has acquired the client base and existing support contracts from Orchestra Nordic in Denmark.
Recruitment of new staff is an important factor for continuing growth. In spite of the general financial downturn over the year 38 new employees have been taken on.
Business in the Netherlands is showing a positive result already in its second year of trading 2009. The earnings performance in Estonia and Latvia has been affected over the entire year by the exceptionally low levels of economic activity in these countries.
2008
... was a record year for Proact. For the first time in the company’s history, annual turnover exceeded SEK 1 billion – an increase of 21 per cent on 2007! We also saw record profits that year, with a profit before tax in excess of SEK 50 million. Sweden and Finland demonstrated the biggest improvement in profits. The subsidiaries in the Netherlands and Estonia, newly established over the year, both showed positive results over the fourth quarter. The acquisition of Xperion in Norway had an effect by broadening the company’s range and increasing its customer base.
Recruitment of new staff is an important factor for continuing growth, and over the year 81 new employees were taken on.
Uncertainty on the financial markets in the latter part of 2008 had only a limited effect on the company’s operations. Clients’ purchasing behaviour had changed; from having been driven by investments in new technology in order to handle greater complexity and increasing storage volumes, to focusing mainly on opportunities to reduce costs.