Exclusive Networks sales hit €3.3bn in first set of full-year results

Following the release of its 2021 results, the French distributor’s CEO spoke with CPI about beefing up its services, where it wants to grow next and the role of the channel going forward

Exclusive Networks has announced its first full-year financial results since debuting as a public company on the Euronext Paris exchange in September.

Gross sales jumped 29.5 per cent on a reported basis to €3.3bn for the full year ended December 31, 2021.

Revenues swelled 31.3 per cent to reach €2.4bn, up from €1.8bn from the previous year, while adjusted EBITA grew ten per cent to €119.2m.

Exclusive said 73 per cent of its gross sales growth was fueled by existing vendors; 13 per cent from vendor expansion and 15 per cent from acquisitions, with all its top ten vendors contributing to the growth.

The group revealed it had signed more than 1,250 new resellers in 2021 (up seven per cent) and expanded with existing vendors into 21 new countries, increasing the number of end customers through its channels by 4,000 to a total of 110,000.

The distributor also added 22 new vendors to its roster, which include the likes of Diamanti, Hashicorp, Salt Security and Sonatype.

Speaking to CPI, Exclusive Networks CEO Jesper Trolle revealed the decision to list the business was driven by wanting to strategically "branch out" into other ecosystems, something he believes the channel will see more of.

"We are changing the ecosystem from being what I would call a traditional 'left to right' sort of a value chain into a true ecosystem where there is no one line of interactions, the transactions can flow in multiple ways.

"We've spent a lot of time expanding our ecosystem with what we call non-transactional partnerships such as cybersecurity schools, government institutions, venture funds, cyber insurance companies. All sorts of constituents that are exerting a lot of impact on cybersecurity, but don't necessarily transact cybersecurity.

"When I think about the channel going forward I think that's very much going to be its role, which is to act as an ecosystem aggregator and not just a transactional value chain that is transacting a demand that maybe was built somewhere else.

"That ecosystem is what allows us to grow, develop and fertilise demand within cybersecurity."

North America saw strongest growth

The French-based company delivered growth across all three of its key regions.

EMEA climbed 14.5 per cent to earn gross sales of €2.5bn.

The region saw an "acceleration" of the developments in the enterprise market and an increasing share of large deals.

Exclusive's operations in the APAC region experienced the greatest adverse impact from Covid-19 in 2020 and 2021, however still grew on 2020 by 8.7 per cent with €394.3m.

Over in the Americas, the region ended 2021 as Exclusive's strongest growth market, racking up gross sales of €346.7m to grow by 28.6 per cent.

"It's crazy how Exclusive is turning 20 years old next year, but we've only been in North America for just over five years," Trolle noted.

"We are catching up a bit in North America and this was a renewed focus for us at the end of 2020 and we're still only at the start of the journey.

"The business grew 78 per cent in Q4 and almost 29 per cent in the full year and we'll see that continue to accelerate."

Exclusive said that, despite a less fragmented market, the Americas experienced strong demand for the 2-tier model.

The growth was very strong with historical vendors and further accelerated by the onboarding of new vendors.

Goals for 2022

Following its FY21 results, Exclusive raised its 2022 outlook to project gross sales topping €3.8bn.

Looking ahead to this year, Trolle said Exclusive's objectives include delivering on this raised outlook as well as continuing its geographical expansion.

"We've done 19 acquisitions over the last eight years and since I joined we've done five, with three in 2020 and two and 2021," said Trolle.

"And we still have a pipeline that's quite active to acquire companies that will help us expand into regions where we currently are not present, but also companies that would add certain capabilities to our business."

Trolle highlighted the Asia Pacific in markets such as Japan, South Korea, Taiwan as areas of interest for growth, as well as LATAM, where Exclusive currently is not present.

Giving more insight into the new capabilities Exclusive is looking for, Trolle revealed it will focus around services.

"Anything that can beef up our services proposition. More and more the value of the solution is not only in the product, it's more in the services that go around it.

"And so here I would say you have areas around cloud, security assessment services, migration services.

"So I would say services in general is an area where we are interested in."