US reseller Insight reported flat year on year sales in Q4 for the three months ending 31 December 2020 at $2.29 billion in what its CEO called its most challenging year.
In EMEA, net sales were also flat year on year at $403 million while EMEA earnings fell by nine percent to $9.3 million.
Insight CEO Kenneth Lamneck said 2020 was “one of the most challenging we faced as a company”.
“In the fourth quarter, the demand environment continued to be challenged and we focused on answering our client’s most pressing IT needs while helping many plan for the investment required to support the business as the economy recovers.”
While net sales in North America decreased marginally by one percent, earnings increased by 28 percent to $70.5 million.
Net sales in APAC increased 31 percent year on to $44.9 million, and earnings increased by 64 percent to $3.2 million.
Across the business, CFO Glynis Bryan pointed the finger at “supply imbalances” in the channel as having stymied growth through fourth quarter.
“Despite higher bookings going into the fourth quarter last year, we did not realise on the top growth on the top line for hardware due to continued supply imbalances across the channel and also client requirements to ship in 2021.”
Lamneck, however, reassured investors that, despite challenges, the US reseller’s EMEA operations are still “healthy”.
“We believe our EMEA business is healthy and well-positioned to serve clients across the UK and mainland Europe with our existing local presence and the supply chain model we’ve operated in this region for some time.”
He added that Brexit has not impacted the business.
“Brexit negotiations wrapped up in December, and the new trading cooperation agreement between the EU and the UK came into effect on December 31, 2020.
“Under the new arrangement, the general position is that tariffs and other customs duties and taxes will not be applied to goods shipped between the UK and the EU. We do not believe Brexit has impacted our results materially today.”
For the full year, Insight’s net sales increased by eight percent to $8.3 billion, while earnings from operations grew 13 percent to $271.6m.
