Exclusive Networks delivers strong Q2

Exclusive Networks has continued to reward investors that backed the distributor with a solid set of second-quarter numbers.

The channel player reported a 43% increase in gross sales, topping more than €1bn, with growth in major regions, including 43% in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), 36% in Asia-Pacific (APAC) and 46% in the Americas.

There was particularly strong growth in the UK and Germany as the enterprise market accelerated during the quarter.

There were also signs that the momentum would continue with bookings growth above gross sales growth, and as a result of extending vendor relationships and acquisitions the serviceable addressable market had also grown to more than €2bn.

The distie also reported 360% year-on-year growth in the number of partners on its X-OD cloud platform, with a 154% rise in the number of transactions on the platform. That helped the firm’s cloud business improve by 50% year on year.

Jesper Trolle, CEO of Exclusive Networks, said it was benefitting from being a strong player in the cyber security market and having built strong relationships with the major vendors.

“External factors such as a strengthening of the US dollar and better-than-anticipated delivery rates from our core suppliers also contributed to the growth,” he added.

“Growth has been fuelled this quarter by all of the main core cyber security segments, as well as by our newest segments such as cloud security and DevSecOps, both delivering sharp growth and validating our strategy to accelerate opportunities in these segments through the acquisition of Nuaware. These segments have experienced triple-digit growth rates and have an outstanding growth potential,” he said.

Trolle also gave some comfort to those keeping an increasingly concerned eye on rising inflation and the cost of living crisis by commenting on the market factors that would keep the growth coming.

“Spending on cyber security remains an increasing priority for companies and public institutions of all sizes. We see this in response to greater awareness of cyber threats, sophistication of surface attacks and geopolitical tensions. We are confident that our prominent position in the cyber security ecosystem and robust forward indicators, with bookings growth ahead of gross sales growth, bode well for the future,” he said.

One of the features of the distie’s past couple of quarters has been to extend geographically the relationships it has with key vendors. It has added to that trend with a multi-country expansion with Tenable. The new agreement expands the existing partnership in France, central and eastern Europe and Africa, to now include the UK and Ireland, Germany, the Nordics, Benelux, Iberia and Italy.

“With cloud security, OT/IoT [operational technology/internet of things] security and vulnerability management displaying such strong and positive market growth, Exclusive Networks is deeply focused on delivering this opportunity to its partners, as part of our best-of-breed aggregation of cyber security solutions and services model,” said Denis Ferrand-Ajchenbaum, senior vice-president of global business development and ecosystems at Exclusive Networks.

“Working closely with the Tenable channel team, we aim to grow greater channel awareness of the Tenable proposition, drive increased engagement and generate value-based, channel-led business opportunities for our partners,” he added.

Guy March, senior director of EMEA channels at Tenable, said it had already seen results from Exclusive and was keen to see that partnership expanded: “We’ve achieved significant success with Exclusive Networks over the past few years and look forward to building on this as we expand our relationship across Europe.”