Westcon-Comstor continuing shift to software, services and subscriptions

Westcon-Comstor has delivered a strong set of numbers for its fiscal year, underlining the contribution its data-driven strategy is delivering to its performance.

The distributor shared details of the year ended 29 February with revenues up by 8% to $3.69bn, which was fuelled by decent software sales, and gross profit improved by 23% to $403m.

Security and networking account for 89% of revenues, with strong demand from those areas helping to drive growth.

The distie has also been shifting more of its business to software, services and subscription-based offerings and is now generating 44% of its revenues from recurring business, which is up from 38% in the prior year.

Revenues in Europe increased by 6.7% during the period, with Asia-Pacific delivering 12.9% growth, and Middle East and Africa rising by 3.4%.

The fiscal year saw the distributor expand the business with the acquisition of Rebura in January to bolster the firm’s cloud capabilities and launch its Partner Insights tool to share the fruits of its data-driven approach across its channel base.

Partner Insights offers partners a chance to get a complete picture of transactional data, allowing them to track trends and optimise their business activities.

There are also opportunities for partners to compare performance by vendor against industry benchmarks. The insights will be available across all geographies to all partners, regardless of size.

David Grant, CEO at Westcon-Comstor, said the firm had delivered another solid set of numbers and been able to do so against a backdrop of challenging macroeconomic conditions.

“These results demonstrate our resilience and efficiency when operating in dynamic market conditions, while continuing to advance our vision of being the leading data-driven technology provider and specialist distributor of cyber security and networking solutions and services globally,” he said.

Westcon-Comstor has been developing systems that share data across the business and via Partner Insights to its base of resellers and MSPs.

Grant said that combined with its commitment to sustainability, the company was providing partners with the basis for success. He was optimistic about the prospects for this fiscal year, with the firm continuing to build momentum around software and services.

There was also a hint that further M&A activity was an option to help expand the geographic reach and portfolio.

 “As we look to maintain our growth, we are focused on identifying opportunities to further expand our capabilities through strategic acquisitions and other forward-thinking initiatives such as our Rebura acquisition and AWS Marketplace programme, cementing our successful position in the market,” said Grant. “We are optimistic that the coming year will be another year of growth for the company.”

Meanwhile, Softcat shared a brief trading update covering its third quarter ending 30 April, with the markets this morning indicating the channel player was on track to deliver good results.

“Market conditions and trading in the period remained consistent with the first half, and the company delivered further growth in gross invoiced income, gross profit and operating profit,” the channel player stated. “The board continues to anticipate that full-year gross profit and operating profit results will be in line with expectations.”