Softcat reveals Irish plans

431Softcat is to set up shop in Ireland within a year.

The news came as it announced its 50th consecutive quarter of revenue and profit growth.

The Marlow-based reseller saw revenues increase 25 percent year on year to £472.8 million in the six months ending 31 January 2018, with operating profits increasing 15 percent to £24.1 million.

The outfit has opened a south-coast office and expanded its Manchester premises during the period, and now the cunning plan is to set up in Dublin within the next 12 months.

This is a big step for the company as it would be its first time trying to operate overseas.

Softcat CEO Martin Hellawell dubbed 1H “another robust period of performance”.

The firm added 600 new customers during the period, with gross profits per customer growing by more than 15 percent, he said.

By revenue, software generated £240 million of the total, up 24 percent, with hardware growing 30 percent to £165 million. Services revenues rose by 16 percent to £68 million.

“We are benefiting from strong market demand for all our offerings and all our major customer segments and continue to relentlessly pursue our simple strategy of doing more business with our existing customers and winning new customers”, Hellawell said.

Hellawell will step into the non-executive chairman role on 3 April t and be replaced by Graeme Watt.

“It has been a great privilege to run Softcat for over twelve years. We have achieved a great deal, and it’s been a pleasure to be part of the company’s success in that period. I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to the employees of Softcat for making this possible and also thank our customers and partners for their invaluable support during my tenure”, he said.

Softcat’s market valuation has more than doubled since it went public in November 2015,