Exclusive Group smashes sales target

Acquisitive distributor posts first-half revenues of €370m, shattering expectations by 10 per cent

Pan-European distributor Exclusive Group smashed its expectations for its first-half as a combination of organic growth and an aggressive M&A strategy swelled its performance.

Revenue grew 42 per cent on a like-for-like basis over the first six months of 2015, or 60 per cent when acquisitions are included, to €370m, beating the group's revenue expectations by more than 10 per cent.

Among its top vendors, Exclusive Group saw growth of between 35 per cent and 40 per cent, significantly outpacing wider sector growth, which stands at about seven per cent, according to chief operating officer Barrie Desmond.

"It helps that our strong vendor portfolio occupies the extremely dynamic sectors of cybersecurity and the datacentre, but I think the real secret to our success is our focus on emerging, disruptive vendors," chief executive Olivier Breittmayer told CRN.

"This differentiates us from competitors such as Infinigate, which tend to stick with legacy vendors. They pick up vendors that are halfway through their journey, but we like to nurture them from day one and establish exclusive partnerships," he said. "In my book, that puts us three or four years ahead."

The results bring the distributor ever closer to its €1bn target, originally forecast for 2017. In May, Breittmayer said he expected to reach the goal before 2017. Now he says the firm could within the next 12 months.

"It's clear to see that we upped our momentum towards €1bn in the first half. If we were looking exclusively at organic growth, we would most likely get there by 2017, but including acquisitions we anticipate hitting the sum [considerably earlier]," Breittmayer explained.

Exclusive Group aims to increase its presence in Asia, while further consolidating its European trade with its value-added services and technologies (VAST) strategy. While the UK remains the firm's fastest-growing market and represents 25 per cent of its global business, Breittmayer said increasing its market share in Germany and the Middle East would be key in the mid-term.