Exclusive Networks poised to become euro billionaire

VAD closing in on €1bn revenue goal as imminent M&A activity promises to push 2014 sales well beyond €500m target

Pan-European VAD Exclusive Networks claims it remains on course to become a €1bn (£609m) distributor by 2017 after topping growth expectations in the first half of 2014.

The acquisitive distributor, which now operates in 22 countries, is targeting a revenue haul of €600m this year after first-half sales leapt 55 per cent year on year to €232m.

Stripping out the impact of recent acquisitions, growth hit 27 per cent. This was five per cent above expectations, which chief executive Olivier Breittmayer put down to the improving economy and the strong performance of key vendors.

"Firstly, our vendors, including Fortinet, Arbor, FireEye, and Palo Alto Networks, over-performed the market, which really helped," Breittmayer (pictured) told CRN.

"Economic conditions are also much better and we are seeing that in most countries, except for France and Italy, which continue to be tough. Spain has been difficult for the past three years but it's one of the countries where we did the most growth."

Exclusive's recently launched Big Technology division, which has already been rolled out to the UK, France, Benelux and Germany, grew 200 per cent in the six months to 30 June based on like-for-like comparisons with the relevant vendors, Breittmayer said.

Organic growth alone would have seen Exclusive exceed its 2014 revenue target of €500m, Breittmayer added, but the recent acquisition of Australian VAD WhiteGold and future M&A activity will push the tally even higher.

"With the acquisition pipeline we can expect €600m," he said. "We expect to make some new announcements in the next weeks which will explain how we're going to do that. We are on track to reach €1bn by 2017."