Emerging vendors fuel Exclusive Networks' growth

Distributor posts sales of €62m in the first quarter of 2012

Exclusive Networks has pointed to the success of its emerging vendors after first-quarter sales came in 29 per cent ahead of last year.

The pan-European distributor turned over €62m (£49.4m) in the first three months of the year, nine per cent ahead of its target and putting it on track to hit its full-year revenue goal of €275m.

The 29 per cent figure represents a like-for-like comparison with last year, before Exclusive bought UK distributor VADition and German outfit TLK. It claims its margin target for the quarter was surpassed by eight per cent.

Exclusive recently split its business into core, growth and emerging vendors, with the latter category enjoying strong traction in Q1, indicated chief executive Olivier Breittmayer.

"Particularly pleasing is the rapid progress made with new portfolio vendors Arbor Networks and LogRhythm," he said. "Both have contributed to our success in the first three months of the year and both are ahead of expectations."

Breittmayer was also encouraged by the financial performance of growth vendors Proofpoint and Infoblox – both of which have recently debuted on the stock market – as well as Palo Alto's plans to go public later this year.

"These events illustrate our vendors' intention to fuel and accelerate growth," he said.

Private equity-backed Exclusive now employs 280 staff, works with 40 vendors and transacts with 5,000 resellers across Europe.

Following the acquisition of VADition last year, the UK is now Exclusive's largest country. "We are ahead of budget for the UK," added group marketing director Barrie Desmond.