DTP plans enterprise assault to continue growth spurt

Fast-growing Leeds reseller eyes up commercial market and European expansion

Reseller DTP Group is banking on expanding its presence in the commercial market and in mainland Europe as part of plans to hit £40m turnover.

For the 12 months to the end of June 2011, sales at the firm stood at £25.8m, up from £17.5m the previous year and £14.6m in FY09. The number of staff employed by the firm has also doubled from 50 to 100 since June 2009.

The VAR stocks multiple vendors but has always focused primarily on HP and its business is divisionalised in the same way as the vendor giant, with units equating to HP's PSG, IPG and ESSN groups. DTP has traditionally enjoyed success in the public sector market, particularly the higher education space, but also local government and emergency services.

Founder Howard Hall told ChannelWeb he is expecting to post 25 to 30 per cent top-line expansion again this year. Key growth engines will be DTP's managed print services (MPS) unit, which has been in operation since 1999, and an increased presence in the corporate sphere, Hall predicted.

"MPS and the enterprise: I think the two areas of growth will be those two divisions," he said. "On the enterprise side we are coming up against the usual mid-market guys, as well as the larger ones: Computacenter, Kelway, SCC. We are pretty good at taking Cisco out."

Hall claimed Leeds-based DTP is now "very much a national" operation, with MPS customers benefiting from engineering resource across the UK. The firm has also recently closed its first deals in mainland Europe and is planning further exploration of the continent's mature markets and the Middle East.

DTP's growth has so far come organically, but Hall claimed he would consider an acquisition "if the right deal comes along at the right price". Further growth could be fuelled by the "massive opportunities in terms of cloud provision" and DTP's sales force is tooled up to sell services, not just tin, asserted Hall.

"We reward our people on annuity revenue; their only incentive is to write a great contract [for the customer]," he added.