C2000: 'We will become a £3bn distie'

Computer 2000 has set it sights on growing into a £3bn sales juggernaut in the next five years and reckons signing up new vendors, and a deeper move into supply chain services will help it get there.

The UK's largest wholesaler planned to reach the £2bn milestone by the end of fiscal 2015, ended January that year, but hit the target much earlier than forecast after acquiring SDG for £220m in November.

Peter Hubbard, UK boss at C2000 told The Channel the firm is in the process of digesting that business, which includes new offices in Langley, Birmingham and Warrington and 300 staffers.

"We are keeping all those sites, in fact we are investing in those sites, so part of the integration process is to not close sites it's to actually to add people to each [as well as] specialisms," he said.

A customer briefing centre is currently under construction in Warrington that will include a 50 person theatre, two board rooms and a demo area that all divisions of C2000 can use.

"£3bn is an aspirational target so it keeps the business on the front foot, I'd like to see that in the next five years. It will be a combination of new vendors and services that we'll add to the business".

The SDG buy adds lines including Citrix, Symantec and interestingly IBM and VMware, both of which previously split with C2000 due to a lack of focus.

The deal also boosts C2K's enterprise distribution business with solutions architects, Hubbard said.

He said C2000 was on course to grow turnover 15 per cent organically in fiscal 2012, has added 1,7000 new reseller accounts, and claimed distribution is a "recession friendly business".

"When people are looking to remove costs from their operations or to build efficiency - whether you are a vendor or a reseller - we have the opportunity to help them remove that cost and use our economies of scale," he said.

C2000 already has the Advantage Services portfolio that includes the provision of third party logistics for vendor and retail customers and that is set to expand across all operating divisions, the firm claimed.

"We'll be handling a lot more of their supply chain and logistics," said Hubbard, adding it will also provide configuration services before kit is direct shipped to reseller customers.

According to Canalys, distribution as a sector in Europe made no ground in the first half of 2012 - sales on average were flat - and this is why distributors resorted to buying up rivals to aggressively expand sales.

In the UK, C2000 is clearly bucking that trend by growing, but with fewer and fewer national distributors of any size left in Blighty, the firm might find that reaching the next big sales goal is tougher than the last. ®