Ingram poised to make European acquisitions
Broadliner's European head hails firm's Q2 performance in UK and European markets
Broadliner Ingram Micro is still aggressively pursuing acquisition targets in the UK and Europe, according to its European president.
The distribution giant last week released its second-quarter results reporting sales had reached record levels for three consecutive quarters.
Turnover increased 11 per cent from $7.4bn in 2006 to $8.19bn in 2007. Profit dropped slightly from $53.8 in Q2 2006 to $52.4m in 2007.
Hans Koppen, president of Ingram Micro Europe, told CRN: “The UK is doing very well for us. It is one of three countries in Europe that has really grown. Overall, Europe was up eight per cent due to the strong currency. In particular we have a very strong Hewlett-Packard (HP) business – we are taking market share with HP. Our Cisco business is also very strong.”
Dave Poskett, director of solutions partner organisation, for the UK and Ireland at HP said: “Ingram is one of our largest and longest standing distributors. We applaud its success and hard work in promoting and selling the entire portfolio of HP products.”
The distributor has been searching for a suitable acquisition target in the Radio Frequency ID space for some time and Koppen said the firm has not yet abandoned its search. “There are definitely companies on our radar both in the UK and Europe,” he said. “The UK is the busiest market [for acquisition] and is our next priority along with Germany and France.”
Priorities for the coming quarter will also be to continue focusing on growth areas such as mobility, servers and storage, consumer electronics and navigation systems, Koppen said.
Kieren O’Connor, external sales manager at VAR ACS, said Ingram was doing a good job in the market.
“We have recently found out from HP that we have exceeded all their sales targets and I would say Ingram has helped facilitate a great deal of this business,” he said.
“It has very defined and clean lines of communication, strong web sales tools, and high levels of account management. It is very proactive and always keeps us informed of what is going on in the market.”