'We don't want to hang around': Progress Distribution launches into Germany and Spain

New Hamburg office followed up by Spain country boss, with further locations to follow

Emerging security distributor Progress has launched a company in Germany, kickstarted with a Hamburg office and a new German country manager.

Progress was launched last year by John Quinn, in conjunction with a sister company covering the Nordics out of Sweden, but has now taken its first steps in central Europe ahead of further expansions.

Alongside the German launch and manager hire, Progress has taken on a dedicated Spanish region manager, based in Madrid, as the firm looks to build its presence in Iberia.

Speaking to CRN, Quinn said the portfolio of the European arms will largely be built up of vendors that have a relationship with Progress in the UK, which are looking to move quickly into other European territories.

"Vendors normally go UK, Nordics, central Europe, but it seems that now a lot of them are looking to go from the UK straight to central Europe so it's a good next move for us," he said.

"We've already explored it with seven of our vendors and out of the seven, four would like to be in central Europe already and a couple of them are already there but haven't got any feet on the ground. They've maybe got two or three VARs so we can bolster the VAR community for them.

After establishing the Hamburg office Quinn is looking to take Progress down into Munich, as well as into neighbouring Austria and Switzerland.

The expansion across Europe has come relatively early in Progress' existence, with the firm barely a year old, but Quinn said the move has been driven by demand from vendors.

"It's vendor led," he said. "Vendors are saying we need to go there so we think we need to capitalise on the emerging tech we've signed and go for it, rather than hang around.

"Some would say you have to be in the UK for two or three years [to expand], which is a fair comment, but ultimately let's strike while the iron's hot. A lot of the vendors are quite keen to finance it as well so we can grow with them, which is important because it costs a lot of money to enter a country."

As well as the central European expansion, Progress' Nordics boss Henrik Kindstedt is also plotting to take Progress into the Benelux region.

Quinn said that other European countries could soon become part of the plans, as well as the Middle East, possible in the form of joint ventures with people based in region.

"Certain people I'm talking to at the moment in other companies will be JVs (joint ventures) between me and them, so it'll be the Progress brand but the majority will be owned by the individuals that go into country," he said. "It's almost like a franchise but they're not paying me a 12 or 15 per cent fee."