4. Insight - £437.3m

Last year was a solid one in the UK for the US-headquartered monolith, with sales at its core business holding firm while profits were on the up. Meanwhile the firm’s Minx business – the London-based Cisco Gold reseller it acquired in 2009 – had a stellar 12 months.

For the year to 31 December 2011, Insight Direct UK saw revenue remain more-or-less flat at £413.8m, while pre-tax profits jumped 9.5 per cent year on year to £9.7m.

Insight Networking Solutions saw its revenue expand 43.5 per cent to £23.5m, while pre-tax profits grew more than sevenfold to £2.7m.

During 2012, the company has been in good form across EMEA, with sales in the region growing 14 per cent in Q2 on the back of a massive boost in hardware revenue. The firm claimed it has been reaping the sales benefits of the tablet revolution, while its Cisco business continues to perform well.

Like all the big VARs, Insight has also been making waves in the cloud in the last 12 months, and it announced this summer that it has put more than two million seats into its cloud platform. The company’s cloud play focuses on aggregating vendors’ services with its own offerings.

Insight has also played the consolidator in recent years, with a series of European acquisitions. Further continental expansion looks to be on the cards, with EMEA boss Stuart Fenton recently revealing that plans are well underway to open a French outpost.