'Next 100' resellers rake in a collective sales of £2bn

Those resellers ranked just below the top 100 are more profitable than their larger counterparts, and grew sales by a collective 9.6 per cent in their last financial years, according to new research from CRN

The UK's ‘Next 100' resellers may be smaller in stature than those featured in Top VARs, but they also happen to be significantly more profitable.

That's a key finding from CRN's newest supplement: ‘Rising Stars: The Next 100', which ranks and profiles the century of resellers on CRN's radar that rank just outside the Top 100 by revenues.

Click here to view a PDF of the report, which has been put together in association with Agilitas.

The Next 100 recorded collective revenues £2.02bn in their latest sets of annual accounts, an impressive 9.6 per cent leap on the previous year.

While that's dwarfed by the £13.6bn collective turnover of the Top 100, these firms tend to be more specialised than their larger brethren, and are also significantly more profitable, with average operating profits margins of 4.6 per cent, compared with 3.4 per cent for the top 100.

Some 15 firms in the Next 100 made double-digit margins in their last financial year, compared with just 11 in the Top 100.

And neither do these smaller firms lack ambition. Although the Next 100's revenues range from £12m to £34m, many are intent on becoming £100m-revevenue-plus firms, and could well be the industry's next Softcat or Computacenter.

CRN has monitored the fortunes of the UK's Top 100 resellers for seven years through its Top VARs supplement.

Last year, we built on Top VARs by drawing up a rough-and-ready list of those ranked from 101 to 200 in the pecking order.

This year, we have formalised this research in the form of a supplement, but we acknowledge it is still far from a definitive list. Not every firm in the £12m-£34m revenue bracket is on our radar, and many that are don't disclose their revenues and profits to Companies House. If we have missed anyone off the list, please get in touch via [email protected].