Channel Digest: As the dust settles

After a landslide win for Labour in the UK, in this week's Channel Digest we round up channel leaders' predictions for H2 and their assessment of Labour's commitments

Fresh on the heels of a general election sweep for Labour and in the middle of the Euros, it's a summer like no other in the UK.

Though Keir Starmer has been making overtures to business and industry, we are yet to see what a Labour win looks like for the UK channel, in practice.

For a review of what channel leaders think about the major parties' manifestos, click here.

Overall, after several gruelling years of high interest rates, economic volatility and depressed consumer and business spend, channel leaders are optimistic about the future.

This week, we heard from distribution CEOs Tim Griffin and Frank Salmon on the challenges their businesses are facing, the opportunity in incorporating AI and both of their cautious predictions for an economic uplift in the second half.

Distributors' unique position in the channel often makes them a bellwether for the impact of macro trends on the rest of the IT industry, so the Exertis and CMS Distribution CEOs' optimism should serve as some encouragement for partners.

And there are other positive signs as well. We've banged the acquisition drum a lot this year, because the channel hardly went a week without a major acquisition in H1.

In CRN's H1 M&A round-up, we highlighted ten of the biggest and most impactful deals involving UK partners in the first half.

For context, this is less than a quarter of the total number of acquisitions we covered across vendors, distributors and partners.

The rationale for each deal varies – from service acquisition to complementary accounts, to the occasional acquihire – but a search for growth in a constrained economy plays a part in a significant number.

And though M&A activity has slowed during the summer months, this week we caught up with value-added distie Northamber, which made its second buyout in less than four months with Renaissance Contingency Services.

There are, of course, the few bright spots which have managed to grow their businesses organically, as well as through acquisition.

Crayon which, to be fair, benefits from international diversification, was one such business, which delivered an impressive Q1 across revenue and profitability.

As the business gears up for its Q2 announcement, we sat down with CEO Melissa Mulholland to dig into the key drivers of profitability (yes, it's Microsoft, but there's more to it than that) and peer into the crystal ball for H2.

As always, thank you for reading CRN!