C2000 aims for £3bn dream

Distribution behemoth smashes through £2bn barrier with acquisition of SDG and sets sights on 50 per cent increase in turnover by 2015

Computer 2000 is determined to hit £3bn turnover by 2015 after achieving its previous £2bn goal with the acquisition of SDG earlier this year.

The firm, which offered £1.2bn of credit to the UK market this year, has also added 1,700 new customers over the past 12 months, bringing the total number of resellers it trades with to 13,500.

Computer 2000's boss Peter Hubbard described 2012 as a year of change as he highlighted plans to hit £3bn turnover in the next two years.

"We needed to get our business on a trajectory to take it to £2bn by the end of 2015," Hubbard said. "Last year we were trading at £1.4bn and opened our new offices and a half a million square foot warehouse in Leicestershire. We also went through an acquisition phase this year with SDG, with the acquisition finalised on 1 November."

Hubbard said Computer 2000 was in the process of integrating the businesses, but was keeping on the three sites brought to the table by SDG: Langley in Slough, the HP ESSN and PSG business in Birmingham and the IBM business in Warrington.

"We are keeping all those sites and investing in them all," Hubbard said. "We plan to add people to sites and add specialisms, as well as a new customer briefing centre in Warrington. This will include a 50-person theatre, board rooms and large demo areas.

"This gives us a stronger presence in the north of the UK, where we have traditionally been a southern organisation."

He added the firm has seen consistent 15 per cent growth over the past year and is aiming for more of the same next year, with its three routes to market – retail, corporate and SMB – continuing to grow.

Hubbard said the combined firms mean a total of almost 1,000 employees, with no staff being shed from either side.

"For the size of Computer 2000 and SDG there was remarkably little overlap in both customers and product lines, so if something ain't broke, why try to fix it?" he said.
Despite the challenging economic conditions, Hubbard said distribution was weathering the storm nicely.

"Value-added distribution is a recession-friendly business. When you are looking to remove costs we can help vendors and resellers do that using our economy of scale.

"Our aspiration is to continue to provide all the services we are doing, and bringing on new customers and vendors to offer them a one-stop shop."

Hubbard also said Computer 2000 will move deeper into supply chain services next year.

"There are new services coming out of Tech Data. We have a whole new business called Advantage Services providing 3PL [third-party logistics] services to vendors and customers," he said. "We will be handling a lot more of the supply chain for the retail and corporate space."