Trustmarque racks up £99m sales for Microsoft in improved 2015

Underlying turnover rises eight per cent to £192m as York VAR returns to profitability

Trustmarque generated over £99m of sales for Microsoft last year, the for-sale licensing and services specialist said as it unveiled improved numbers for its financial 2015.

Revenues at the York firm, which confirmed last month it is in a sale process following its merger with Trinity, bounced 42 per cent to £191.9m for the year ending 31 December as underlying operating profit swelled from £0.4m to £2.7m.

On a pro-forma basis, underlying revenue rose eight per cent.

Trustmarque, which holds over 370 Microsoft enterprise agreements, revealed it delivered over £99m of Microsoft channel revenues last year.

It said this makes it Microsoft's number-one reseller of software licences and leading cloud partner to the public sector, with a 20 per cent share of Microsoft public sector revenues and a 42 per cent slice of Microsoft's NHS and healthcare revenues.

During the year Trustmarque claimed it delivered "substantial" IT transformation projects for the Department for Education, NHS Grampian and DVSA, among others.

"I am pleased to report that the merger with Trinity has been welcomed by our customers, our suppliers and our people," said Trustmarque CEO Scott Haddow (pictured).

"The leadership team is excited by the market opportunity that the broader capabilities of Trustmarque present."

Trustmarque, which also partners with VMware, Citrix, McAfee and Snow, reported a 2015 pre-tax profit of £13.3m, compared with a loss of £1.7m a year earlier. However, the VAR profited from an exceptional credit of £10.8m, which it said resulted from its settling a debt payable to a key supplier.

Underlying operating profit, before exceptional items, hit a more modest £2.7m, which Trustmarque labelled "creditable" during a year of integration in which it absorbed £1.6m in restructuring costs.

"As a well-capitalised company and part of a strong and well-financed group, we have a sound platform for the future, and are confident that 2016 will be another successful year," said Trustmarque CFO Martin Trainer.