We’re currently facing a state of uncertainty and confusion in the UK, thanks to the arrival of Brexit and our separation from the EU. Recently, we’ve begun to see how changes to the European and UK relationship may be having an impact on our future as a country in terms of connectivity solutions and telecommunications distributions.
Towards the end of February 2017, new numbers were released that indicate Exclusive Networks growth levels in the UK have been cut in half by fluctuations in currency over the last year. Expansions have been cut from 28% to 14%, but the CEO, Olivier Breittmayer claims that the firm has now seen the worst of the Brexit changes.
The Latest Figures for Exclusive Networks
The distributer (headquartered in Paris), reported full-year revenues at a growth of 51% year-on-year to around £1.08bn. That takes them up from around £725m last year. Though Exclusive aren’t currently publishing their profit figures, the CEO claimed that profitability has been in line with expectations. Like-for-like organic sales growth for 2016 stood at around 22%, which Breittmayer suggested was a key achievement. He noted that sales in Southern Europe, Spain, France, and Italy were particularly strong last year, while the UK was good in terms of sterling.
In the Nordic region, there was a turnover rise of 41% annually, while DACH and Beneulx regions saw growth in excess of 20%. UK growth in local currency stood at around 28%, but the figure was cut in half when you translate it to Euros.
Breittmayer commented that he thinks the worst of Brexit is now over, and the volatility in the area is now set to diminish. At the same time, Barrie Desmond, chief operating officer, claimed that one of the key trends that fuelled the growth of Exclusive in the last year was an increase in business with larger system integrators. Exclusive are one of the global brands headquartered in Europe, and they have a real footprint now with an exciting, fast-growing vendor portfolio.
Becoming a Global Player
On the basis of partnership and technology, Exclusive notes that it experienced around a 50% revenue growth through 5 out of its top ten vendors last year. The distributor’s Big Tec entity was another success story that took turnover past the 100m euro mark in 2016.
For a number of years now, Exclusive have been outlining their goal to reach sales of 1 billion euros – a feat that was achieved through the purchase of the Singaporean VAD transition systems solution in late 2015. Breittmayer suggested that the financial target can now double in size every three years. However, the primary target of the company is to solidify its status as a global outfit by expanding through mergers and acquisitions, or organic growth, into the US and other areas of south-east Asia.
