20-year-old ANS sees bump in profits for 2015

Manchester-based VAR claims managed services behind 20 per cent rise in profits

Reseller ANS has seen a bump in its profits for 2015, with the 20-year-old firm claiming to have hit 11 consecutive years of profit growth.

For the 12 months to 31 March 2015, the Manchester-based VAR's EBITDA was £5.8m, up 20.8 per cent, on sales of £47m, which were flat on the previous year.

The NetApp, VMware and Cisco partner celebrated its twentieth anniversary earlier this month.

Paul Sweeney (pictured), ANS chief executive, told CRN the key to this rise in profit was the focus on the managed services side of the business.

"When we do an infrastructure deal, our managed services are much richer than they were four years ago; we are able to attract longer-term, high-value renewal contracts. [Our rise in profits] is purely down to that.

"We are still doing a good amount of professional services and a good amount of kit for Cisco and NetApp, but what is going northwards is the managed services. Everything we win now that is a five-year deal really helps us next year when we come to win more five-year deals and we add them to the ones we already have. We are seeing now this effect on the year-on-year revenues growing the bottom line."

Despite ANS' jump in profits, its sales were flat, but Sweeney was not concerned by this and is assured they will return to growth next year.

"I'm confident we will grow the bottom line as well as the top line, now we have gone through that [services-orientated] transition," he said.

When asked what has been behind the firm's 11 years of consecutive profit growth, Sweeney said, "a lot of bloody hard work".

"In that period we have probably reinvented ourselves twice; it's part of being a business that is 20 years old. We have almost been four different businesses over that period," he said.

"It's that innovation; we are always looking for the next big thing and we have been very successful at managing to jump from one technology to another while maintaining profitability. We never rest on our laurels and we never rest on one technology; we are constantly pushing forward. And good old, northern hard graft."