WStore gets Systemax B2B sales back on track

Max power: Systemax grew Q4 revenue 15 per cent to $938.2m

Sales from recent acquisition WStore helped online resale giant Systemax grow business-to-business sales (B2B) in Q4, at the end of a torrid year in the corporate market.

The Long Island-based firm, which also owns online VAR Misco, posted revenue of $938.2m (£620m) for 2009's last three months, up 15 per cent on Q4 2008. The company also took pains to point out that its closing quarter and full-year reporting periods contained 13 and 52 weeks, respectively, compared with 14 and 53 the previous year.

Operating profit for the quarter stood at $30.3m, almost double last year's amount. Consumer sales were up nine per cent to $537.6m, while B2B revenue soared 25 per cent to $400.6m.

The growth marks a turnaround following a testing 2009 which saw the company's business sales slump 18 per cent annually in the first six months of the year. More bad news followed in Q3, when B2B revenue suffered a seven per cent decline.

But Systemax chief executive Richard Leeds claimed the WStore buyout, which closed in September, had made the difference in Q4.

"Systemax posted all-time record sales, with over 24 per cent growth in the fourth quarter on an equivalent weeks basis," he said. "Our B2B sales growth was the highest, driven by the impact of the WStore acquisition, which was completed in September 2009, and modestly improving economic conditions in certain of the geographies in which we sell.

"Our consumer channel sales benefited from a robust holiday season that saw consumers shopping for lower priced products such as netbook computers, digital cameras and smaller flat-screen televisions both online and at our retail stores, as well as the Circuit City asset purchase which was completed in May 2009."

Across the whole of 2009, Systemax grew revenue four per cent to $3.2bn, while operating income stood at $73.4m, a drop of $10m on the preceding year. North American technology sales provided about two-thirds of the overall total, while Europe chipped in with 27 per cent.

Industrial products provided six per cent of total revenue, with software providing just $2m in sales last year. Consumer sales stood at $1.8bn, with B2B providing the remainder of the company's revenue.