CCS Media eyes £80m turnover

VAR sees growth in services, but says hardware sales are not to be looked down upon

CCS Media is on track to become an £80m reseller by the end of the year after its first-quarter results hit targets.

The firm saw sales grow 14 per cent year on year to just over £20.5m, driven by a huge upturn in services, which grew 173 per cent.

Software sales also grew 32 per cent, and consumables and hardware increased 15 per cent. The main brands that grew during the quarter were HP (26 per cent) and Dell (25 per cent).

However, Terry Betts, managing director of CCS, said despite the services growth, hardware sales are still bread and butter to the firm.

"Services are a broad thing – ours include maintenance, fix and repair and running whole ghost systems to customers – it is definitely a growing area for us and will account for a large proportion of the business going forward.

"However, I certainly do not look down on product sales. I think it is still a healthy business to be in, and there are not many services players out there who still sell kit.

"I want to be everything to our customers. I do not want them getting their services from someone else," he said.

"I think the industry gets it wrong quite often – too many people forget hardware and go down the services route, but people still need hardware, even if they are in the cloud."

He said CCS has had a "fantastic" April, hailing it the "best month ever" and revealed that the firm intends to keep recruiting to fuel its growth plans.

"We will hit £80m this year," he said.