Insight, Proact and SHI tickled pink by improving numbers

Three of the world's most geographically diversified VARs report uptick in sale

Two international reseller powerhouses with a presence in the UK - Insight Enterprises and Proact - enjoyed an uptick in business in the final quarter of 2013, presenting further evidence of a thaw in market conditions.

Meanwhile, a third global VAR juggernaut, SHI International, has also reported a surge in full-year revenue.

Although US-based Insight and Sweden-based Proact both reported a fall in full-year revenue and profits, the final quarter of 2013 gave both VARs cause for optimism as business began to pick up again.

Insight Enterprises

Insight chief executive Ken Lamneck said he was pleased with the NASDAQ-listed giant's final quarter ending 31 December as revenue rose four per cent year on year to $1.4bn (£0.8bn). Net profits fell two per cent to $20.4m as recent partner programme changes from an unnamed vendor - presumably its largest partner Microsoft - bit into its bottom line.

Even its EMEA operation, which has struggled in recent quarters, saw revenue rise by two per cent in local currencies to $397.6m on the back of an increase in business productivity and virtualisation software sales.

"We returned to year-over-year growth on the top line in North America and EMEA, we executed better than expected against recently announced partner programme changes, and we continued to control our operating costs, which all led to solid results in the quarter," Lamneck said.

For the full year, Insight's net profits fell 23 per cent to $71m on revenue that dropped three per cent to $5.1bn.

Proact

Proact may not be as large as Insight but the storage integrator is also something of a litmus test for the market, employing as it does 650 staff across the Nordics, UK, Benelux, the Baltics and the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Despite enduring a mixed year, Q4 revenue bounced by four per cent to SEK737m (£69m) on an annual comparison, with after-tax profit rising 12 per cent to SEK12.1m.

Sales in the UK, which is Proact's second-largest business unit behind the Nordics, rose 13 per cent in Q4 to SEK125m, stripping out the contribution of Exquip, the UK hardware maintenance outfit it offloaded last March. Pre-tax profit more than doubled during the quarter to SEK4.3m.

"I am very pleased that we have managed to improve our profit and increase our revenue in the fourth quarter, compared with the same period last year," said Proact managing director Martin Ödman.

"This is a clear show of strength from our organisation, as the opinion of industry analysts is that market conditions have not improved during the period," he said.

2013 saw Proact focus on boosting profitability, with a cost-savings programme launched at the start of the year slashing annual costs by SEK40m, Ödman said.

For the full year, the NASDAQ OMX Stockholm-listed outfit saw revenue fall five per cent to SEK2.3bn (or one per cent adjusting for currencies and disposals), with after-tax profit down 35 per cent to SEK27.2m.

SHI International

It was also a year of growth for US-based Microsoft partner SHI, although as a private company the firm did not break out profit figures.

Its 2013 revenue rose 15 per cent to $5bn, with Q4 sales up by the same proportion to $1.5bn. The firm added 400 staff in North America and Europe during the year, propelling total headcount to 2,500, the most in its history.

"If we were a public company, SHI's $5bn in revenue would rank us among the Fortune 500, which includes many of our valued customers and partners," said SHI chief executive Thai Lee.