Datatec shares H1 2025 numbers

Market conditions have been challenging for the channel this year, but the stalwarts of the industry continue to deliver solid results.

Earlier today, Softcat shared its preliminary full-year numbers, which included double-digit growth in gross invoiced income. Datatec, owner of Westcon-Comstor and Logicalis, has followed that by revealing its half-year 2025 numbers, providing an insight into what has been happening elsewhere in the channel.

Westcon-Comstor reported a 6.1% increase in gross profit to $216.1m for the six months to 31 August. Revenue for the period decreased by 2.9% to $1.8bn. It saw a 16.5% year-on-year increase in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) to $69.5m, with a 0.6% rise in adjusted EBITDA margin to 4%.

The distributor is well positioned in the networking space and has been pushing its security offerings, with revenues from its portfolio on that side of the business improving by 22.2% to reach $860m. Security products and services now account for 48% of total revenues, up from 38% in the same period last year.

That momentum is expected to continue, with the firm revealing it has a strong pipeline in place for the second half of the year.

Software sales also improved, climbing by 17.9% to represent 49% of total revenue, compared with 40% in the first half last year. Westcon-Comstor is continuing to transition away from traditional hardware sales to increase the amount of the business that is generating recurring revenues based on annual subscriptions and software-as-a-service (SaaS) models.

“Against a challenging backdrop of uncertain macroeconomic and market conditions, we are pleased to maintain our profit growth trajectory as we report a strong financial performance for H1 FY25,” said Westcon-Comstor CEO David Grant.

“Through our data-driven approach, expertise in high-growth technology domains and track record for innovation – as evidenced by our 3D Lab, AWS Marketplace and Intelligent Demand programmes – we are uniquely placed to add strategic value to channel partners and vendors. We can therefore look to the future with confidence as we focus on unlocking new growth opportunities for partners and vendors across EMEA and Asia-Pacific.”

Logicalis International saw revenues decrease by 10.9% to $575m, due to more software and services revenue being net accounted. The order intake in the first half of its 2025 financial year remained strong, increasing by 8.6%.

Logicalis is continuing to develop its lifecycle solutions approach, covering cloud, security, networks and the internet of things for customers.

The short-term market conditions remain challenging, but the long-term outlook is brighter, with the firm looking to react to the ongoing need for support with hybrid workspaces and improved digital experiences for customers.

Jens Montanana, chief executive of Datatec, said its channel portfolio had performed strongly in its first half.

“The group’s much-improved year-on-year financial performance was underpinned by Westcon maintaining its positive profit growth trajectory and Logicalis International increasing its profitability strongly. Logicalis Latin America’s overall performance also improved compared to H1 FY24,” he said.

“We expect that all divisions will deliver a better full year-over-year performance despite some softening in certain European markets. We continue to deliver on our strategy to enhance the competitiveness and profitability of our subsidiaries,” he added.