UK punches above weight for growing Bechtle

European VAR powerhouse posts a 15 per cent hike in revenues, with the UK growing by 30 per cent

The UK market was a shining star for Bechtle as it closed its FY2017 with a 15.4 per cent hike in revenues to €3.75bn (£3.3bn).

EBITDA also grew double digits by 14.2 per cent to €196.18m (£173.02m). The German-based VAR saw profits and revenues grow in every quarter of the year.

Commenting on the results, Bechtle CEO Thomas Olemotz highlighted the launch of the firm's e-commerce platform as its key achievement.

Following its half-year financial results, Bechtle claimed that it had already made €33m-worth of strategic investments in 2017, "to ensure future competitiveness"; almost as much as the firm spent for the entirety of 2016 when investments reached €39.6m.

Accounts reveal that Bechtle continued spending in the second half of the year, bringing total investments for the year to €67.2m.

"In 2017, we again invested in numerous future-oriented projects that are important for our company," said Olemotz.

"Key achievements include the punctual launch of our 'Clouds' platform, the complete relocation of the Bechtle datacentre to Europe's largest datacentre campus in Frankfurt, and the go-live of the new bechtle.com as the digital marketplace for the broad Bechtle offering."

However, the lion's share of Bechtle's revenues was still generated by IT system house and managed services, with €1.01bn revenues generated by e-commerce.

Its positive results take Bechtle towards its mid-term goal of becoming a €5bn powerhouse by 2020. The VAR first broke through the €3bn sales mark in 2016.

The DACH firm also saw its headcount grow by 8.9 per cent to 8,353. Bechtle has offices in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, with subsidiaries in 14 countries.

It comes after Bechtle made several acquisitions throughout 2017, the largest of which was Austrian VAR Ulbel & Freidorfer, which turned over €23m in 2016.

Some €2.51bn, or two thirds of revenues, were derived from Bechtle's domestic market of Germany.

Internationally, Switzerland accounted for €320.8m of revenues. Meanwhile, Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Taiwan and the UK each contributed less than 10 per cent of sales.

Bechtle's UK managing director, James Napp, said: "From a UK perspective, we're extremely happy as we grew 30 per cent across the board, with over 78 per cent growth in our services business and 50 per cent growth in our software and cloud business. I'm really proud of our progress. This is just the start for us in terms of scaling the business in the UK."

Napp said Bechtle's UK business had in the last three to four years made the strategic shift from being transactional business into a "complete solutions and services business, with a great transactional engine as well".

"We've turned the business on its head," he said.