Exclusive upbeat after its Q4 breaks €1bn sales barrier

Channel companies have a strong track record of delivering results once they decide to go public, and Exclusive Networks is following that trend with decent numbers for its fourth quarter and full year.

The distributor went public back in September, and this is the first full-year numbers, covering the period up to 31 December 2021, that investors have had the chance to chew on.

And they should like what they see, with the channel player reporting Q4 gross sales of €1bn – a 14% year-on-year improvement. IFRS revenues of €799.1m were up by 37.5%. That €1bn gross sales in a quarter is a first for Exclusive and sets fresh records for the firm.

Across EMEA,  gross sales were €817.9m, up by 30.6% year on year. Exclusive reported that robust sales contributed to that growth, along with decision by some of its vendors, including F5 and Netskope, to extend the number of territories the distributor could support.

For the full year, gross sales came in at €3.3bn, a 15.1% climb and above targets. Revenues came in at €2.5bn, up 31.3% year on year.

“For the first time in its history, Exclusive Networks exceeded €1bn of gross sales in a quarter,” said Exclusive CEO Jesper Trolle. “This is not just a symbolic milestone in our journey, but also again demonstrates our success addressing the compelling demand for cyber security solutions and offering the optimal go-to-market platform to guide customers in the ever-changing environment with best-in-class solutions.

“The migration to cloud and its associated complexity represents a great growth opportunity as it allows us to get even closer to vendors, partners and end-customers.

“During the quarter and in continuity with our third quarter 2021, demand was strong in the enterprise market and with a higher number of large contracts, notably in the Americas and EMEA. Over the year, we increased our global partner network by 12% and expanded our geographical presence with strategic vendors, such as Fortinet, F5, Juniper, Netskope and Palo Alto.”

Trolle said the distributor had also been adding more vendors to its portfolio over the fourth quarter, including Security Score Card, Docker, Salt Security and Entrust.

He also used the results announcement to thank staff for their continued efforts working through the pandemic and for its vendors for helping to alleviate challenges. “I would like to thank our vendors for their exceptional collaboration and efforts to overcome the challenging supply chain environment, and all our operations teams for their relentless dedication to help get supply to our partners,” he said.

Looking ahead, Trolle struck a positive tone, given that the factors that helped drive the firm to a €1bn quarter were still active in the market.

“The global environment is characterised by a growing awareness about digital threats and increasing demand for cyber security solutions, all of which is well aligned with Exclusive Networks’ core market proposition, partner ecosystem and business objectives,” he said. “We foresee the strong momentum in the market to continue short term and mid-term. We are reconfirming our full-year 2021 profitability and medium-term targets.”