•   Revenues of top 250 ICT resellers and solution providers grew by 1.7% last year to £44.4 billion (€48.8 billion)
•   Further market consolidation as major players snap up weaker rivals
•   Demand for virtualisation, security and unified communications technologies continues to be strong

(LONDON, UK – 27 October 2009) Larger resellers and solution providers have weathered the financial storms well and outperformed the overall economy in posting modest revenue growth over the last year. Revenues of the top 250 resellers grew by an average of 1.7% in 2008 to £44.4 Billion (€48.8 Billion) - a very creditable performance with the overall economy and key IT sectors such as server and hardware sales generally in decline.

Most of the rise was the result of continued consolidation within the sector with some of the major players fleshing out their portfolios and snapping up distressed rivals – HP’s acquisition of EDS being the most notable. Nor has the overall growth been achieved without pain, with 26% of the top 250 companies reporting declining revenues. Although many organisations have reduced staff numbers, encouragingly, there is also evidence that companies have battled hard to retain key skills and overall staff numbers in the top 250 have actually risen by 4.6% to 240,105 which should place the sector in a position to benefit from any increase in demand as the economy emerges from recession. In terms of technology areas, the strongest growth has been seen in areas such as virtualisation, security and unified communications.

These are some of the conclusions drawn from the 2009 UK ICT Premier 250 database report which is published today by IT Europa, the leading European channel intelligence organisation. The report provides detailed profiles of the top 250 resellers of information and communication technologies in the UK, ranked by revenue.

IT Europa's Managing Director, Alan Norman commented: “It has been a difficult year for the industry but the leading resellers and solution providers have generally performed strongly in the face of declining demand. This success has stemmed mainly from an increased focus on the provision of services and solutions. Such business is less susceptible to short term declines in demand. However, we expect to see further consolidation in this sector during the coming year as confidence returns and companies take advantage of lower market valuations to strengthen their solution and services portfolios.”

The UK ICT Premier 250 database report was researched during September and October 2009 and developed based on detailed interviews with the organisations involved. Although the recession has bitten hard, the outlook for the future is generally positive with most organisations forecasting stronger growth for the next 12 months.

The IT Europa UK ICT Premier 250 database report provides detailed profiles of the top 250 UK ICT resellers (including sales breakdowns, key contacts, customer segments, partners etc.) The report is available now from IT Europa (www.iteuropa.com) at £1495.