Top 500 European Distributors grew just over 20% in the last year to generate combined revenues of €125.47 billion ($174.23bn)

[London – 17 July 2012] European Distributors have generally enjoyed a relatively good year and are proving resilient in the face of recessionary pressures. In 2011, the last full year for which accounts are available, revenues for the top 500 European Distributors increased by 20.64% to €125.47 billion ($174.23bn). Overall, smaller independent Distributors outperformed the major groups with growth of 25.71% (compared with 10.15% for parent companies and 16.21% for subsidiaries). These are amongst the findings from “Distributors in Europe – The Top 500”, the latest database report from IT Europa which is published today.

The database report, which provides detailed business profiles of each of the top 500 European Distributors, provides further evidence that the 2-tier distribution model is proving very resilient both to economic pressures and to the challenge posed by direct sales via the Internet. Despite the difficult economic situation, Distributor revenues in 2011 continued to increase throughout Europe, with the exception of Greece which showed a decline of 1.57%. Germany was the highest performing market with total distribution revenues of $25.95 billion from 55 companies, followed by the UK with $18.11 billion from 51 companies.

IT Europa Managing Director, Alan Norman says: “this is a complex market and behind the figures we are seeing several factors at play. Consolidation is certainly a factor with several acquisitions being made by larger companies and a number of smaller ones going out of business. We are also seeing a good deal of diversification, as distributors expand their product portfolios to take advantage of new growth markets and technologies such as digital signage, Tablets and smartphones.

"Generally, Distributors are proving very resilient to market and economic pressures, however we expect to see further rationalisation and consolidation within the sector and it will be interesting to see how the industry responds to new threats such as changing business models with the growth of cloud computing. Larger global players such as Avnet and Westcon have bought three smaller European distribution companies in the last month and anyone seeking to identify future partners or takeover targets is likely to find this database report invaluable.”

The “Distributors in Europe – The Top 500” database report spans 38 countries and represents the most detailed view available of this key market sector. It has been compiled from detailed interviews by IT Europa’s own research team. The company profiles include sales breakdowns by company activity, hardware and software products sold, key vendor relationships and detailed information on staff numbers and development plans, along with contact details for the top executives of each company. The report is available from IT Europa (www.iteuropa.com) costing from £2,350. Data can also be extracted and supplied by country, region or on a bespoke basis.