Bechtle growth surge continues as revenue tops €5bn
Preliminary results show revenues rocketed by 24 per cent
Bechtle has added more than €1bn to its revenues in 2019, smashing through its €5bn sales target a year early.
Preliminary results show revenues rocketed by 24 per cent to €5.37bn (£4.56bn) in full-year 2019, while pre-tax profits jumped by 22 per cent to around €236m, equating to an EBIT margin of around 4.4 per cent.
The figures signal that Bechtle has obliterated its €5bn revenue goal a year earlier than anticipated as per its "Vision 2020" target set in 2008.
"The impressive figures show how well Bechtle is able to meet the high, digitalisation-driven demand of our customers with future-proof IT solutions. Our customers rely on our expertise and make Bechtle their IT partner of choice" said Thomas Olemotz, CEO of Bechtle.
This isn't the first time Bechtle has surpassed a goal from its "Vision 2020" forecast earlier than planned. In December 2018, the firm announced that it had reached its 10,000 employee mark two years ahead of schedule.
Bechtle was one of Europe's fastest growing reseller heavy hitters in 2019, with its share price jumping by 46 per cent over the course of the year to a market cap of €5.31bn.
The Neckarsulm-based reseller has overtaken Computacenter to become Europe's largest reseller by revenue over the last few years. Computacenter has yet to release 2019 revenue figures, but Bechtle's bumper results might also see it surpass its UK rival in global revenues, with Computacenter logging £4.35bn (€5.13bn) in sales for 2018.
Computacenter released a pre-close trading update on 23 January. It did not disclose figures, but it announced that 2019 had been one of the most successful years in its history, with revenue and profits reaching record highs.
At the end of 2018, Bechtle set itself the goal of hitting €10bn in revenues by 2030, which would mean it will have to add just shy of €500m to its top line every year between 2018 and 2030.
Reaching €10bn in sales would put Bechtle at a comparable size to global reseller giants such as CDW, SHI and WWT.
Bechtle also restated its 2020 target of hitting an EBIT margin of five per cent - a goal it will unlikely reach seeing as its EBIT margin increased by just 0.1 per cent year on year to 4.4 per cent according to the preliminary results.