Ireland - stable market for
SMEs and solid for PCs
The Irish distribution market enjoyed a rare
period of stability over the last 12 months.
Midia and Commtech posted impressive
revenue growth and Clarity has closed the gap
on market leader Sharptext in the first full year
following its acquisition by Westcoast, but with
unit prices continuing to fall, for many it was a
case of maintaining their position from the end
of 2006...
Pic: ‘informatique’
his was certainly the case at Sharptext, where turnover was static at Westcoast’s profile in the small and medium sized business market, according
T
about €147m despite an increase of 13% in unit shipments. Managing to managing director Adrian Foley.
director Paul White summarised developments across the whole “Demand from consumers has been strong, but our second and third tier
market in similar terms. SME business has doubled over the last 12 months. Our customer focus used
“Westcoast acquiring Clarity changed the balance of UK-based distributors to be at the top end of the pyramid, whereas Westcoast had been building its
in Ireland but there were no other major shifts. Unit demand is still strong business outside that top tier so was very good at putting together marketing
but average unit prices continue to fall. The weakness in sterling gave the UK collateral etc.”
companies a period of advantage until the vendors adjusted their prices, but “The acquisition has also given us huge stock availability in the UK,” he adds.
that was short lived.” “Clarity would have previously had between €12m and €15m of stock, whereas
It was also ‘as you were’ on the vendor front, with Sharptext happy to Westcoast has €45m to €50m at any one time.”
consolidate its relationships with key vendors HP, IBM, Microsoft and Cisco. The other figures make equally healthy reading. Reseller numbers are up,
“This is a relationship based market and you have to work with the resellers headcount has increased by between 25% and 30% and Foley reckons the
in terms of customer visits and helping them structure the deals,” says White, company has “at least doubled” its customer base.
who described interest in vendor finance among Irish resellers as low. The only major addition to the vendor line up was Samsung, with which
This gave Clarity an opportunity to close the gap at the top and it took Westcoast does a lot of business in the UK. However, Clarity’s managing
advantage, with sales in 2007 of €138m, an increase of over 12% compared to director (who pointed to mobility as one of the most significant market
the previous 12 months. Much of this growth can be attributed to new owner developments over the last year) was keen to point out that there was no
22 29 feb 2008
It0804 - 22-25_sme_ireland.indd 22 27/02/2008 10:27:34
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