How being a 'mixed bag' helped this Lancashire VAR hit record revenue

Adlington-based Blue Orange sets sights on £10m revenue in next two years, says MD

Lancashire-based Blue Orange is set to smash the £10m-revenue target in the next two years, according to its MD David Silous-Holt.

The reseller, which counts HP, Microsoft and Dell among its vendor partners, raked in £4.2m in revenue for its fiscal year ending 31 March 2020, and Silous-Holt anticipates turnover hitting £5m by the end of its current fiscal year.

He told CRN that the firm could hit £10m in turnover sooner than his two-year target, but that he wants to go about it in a way that ensures customer satisfaction and loyalty.

"I actually think we can hit that sooner but we want to do it in the right way," he said.

"We want a profitable business, but with longevity and client satisfaction and trust; we are being selective with the type of clients we are taking on board."

Silous-Holt co-founded the reseller 13 years ago, but sold his shares a year later and took up a position with Insight. He returned to Blue Orange four years ago when turnover was at £1m, and the intervening years have seen the business grow rapidly by investing profits back into the company.

It now has a team of 16 full-time employees, with 10 sub-contractors, though Silous-Holt hopes to bring these roles in-house. The company hired three engineers pre-lockdown and plans to hire up to five more heads in the next month.

"The business had done well but my fellow directors saw it wasn't going in the direction they wanted and I was looking to return to the north-west," he explained of his return to helm Blue Orange. "The growth is a result of the team that we have built in the last few years."

The reseller is on also on the hunt to acquire, though Silous-Holt was coy on what kind of companies they are looking at. He did hint that they were looking for somewhere in the south of the company, possibly in London.

About 65 per cent of Blue Orange's revenues come from schools and universities, with the remaining 35 per cent coming from business clients, which includes Nandos.

Its education business has helped it remain buoyant when income from other streams was curtailed.

The MD admitted that COVID had an impact on its first quarter, but it did grow its profit as a result of the demand for hardware as organisations pivoted to remote working and schooling.

"We saw a big drop in our business clients after that mad rush to work from home," he said.

"But our education and our contracted clients all moved forward projects that had been in the pipeline for remote working. All the things that we talk about with customers in our development plans all accelerated when lockdown hit.

"I think we have done so well because we are such a mixed bag, it allows us to grow and flourish when other companies have seen a decline."