Softcat CEO thanks industry for IPO support

Martin Hellawell vows Softcat's strategy will not change following LSE debut

Martin Hellawell said he is looking forward to spending more time with staff and customers again following Softcat's IPO, which he claimed was aided by "tremendous advice" from industry peers.

Softcat's shares began trading on a conditional basis on the London Stock Exchange last Friday, with full unconditional trading beginning in earnest this morning.

"It has been a long and tiring project and it's fair to say it's kept me out of a portion of the business for a while," Softcat chief executive Hellawell (pictured) told CRN.

"Part of my role moving forward has to be on the whole PLC side and I estimate that that will still take up 20 per cent of my time. But considering I was probably spending 40 to 50 per cent of my time over the past six months on this project, I will now have a lot more time to get back into the business. Hopefully I can come back in and add some value, especially on the employee side, which is what we are obsessed with."

Softcat began mulling over an IPO last summer and Hellawell paid tribute to the "absolutely invaluable" advice dispensed by peers at quoted companies over the past 18 months.

He name-checked Computacenter's Mike Norris, as well as Daisy's Matthew Riley, MXC Capital's Tony Weaver, RM's David Brooks, Telicity's Michael Tobin and former Accumuli boss Gavin Lyons.

"The whole industry has been very generous throughout this process in terms of supporting us," Hellawell said.

He repeated earlier comments that Softcat will not change its strategy, insisting "we carry on as we were, just with a slightly higher profile and with some new heavyweight investors".

"The story we have sold to investors is the one we have been on for the past 10 years and hopefully will be on for the next 10 years," he explained.

Softcat's rise to prominence – its revenues have increased from £146m in 2010 to £596m in 2015 – has coincided with the collapse or decline of some other large resellers but Hellawell insisted the firm is not nearing the limits of its growth potential.

"Winning new customers has never been easy but we estimate we have a five per cent market share of the UK, which is where we will focus for the foreseeable future," he said, adding that that figure is based on last year's Top VARs report.

"That leaves 95 per cent, so there is still plenty of market to go after," he enthused.