Sales and profits boom at acquisitive CMS Distribution

Anglo-Irish distributor's sales break £300m barrier following Widget acquisition

Anglo-Irish technology distributor CMS Distribution has seen its profits more than double throughout 2016, after it closed a string of acquisitions over the last year.

EBITDA rose by 126 per cent year over year to £12.34m, as turnover also saw an 82 per cent annual spike to £324.54m (€388.3m). EBITDA margin meanwhile rose to 3.8 per cent from 3.1 per cent from 2015.

"We are delighted with the results which showed growth across all areas of the business. Our enterprise business continued to outpace the market, driving strong growth in security, information management, storage and open source technologies, along with our retail channels, which also delivered high growth. As our customers continue to deliver innovation around digital transformation, the business portfolio continues to drive change and open doors to new thriving markets," said CMS Distribution's CEO Frank Salmon.

"We continue to invest in systems and customer opportunities that will drive growth and sustained value into the future, as we continue to roll out our business model across new territories. I am very excited about the future of the Group."

CMS snapped up consumer tech firm Widget in May last year, and grabbed a majority stake in Swedish gadget distributor Newgen in December. The firm began 2017 with acquiring Irish accessories distributor TNS Connect in February this year. CMS also launched in Iberia in March through opening an outpost in Madrid.