Beancounters at Context claim that the European channel did rather well in 2020 despite the pandemic,
The outfit reported that distribution sales hit €26.3 billion with year-on-year (YoY) growth of 10.2 percent for the fourth quarter. Full year sales were €83.3 billion, and growth stood at 7.2 percent on last year.
This year is expected to do just as well thanks to digital transformation along with increased demand for home working and homeschooling technology.
Tech Data has been named winner in the categories of Distributor of the Year Europe and Best Customer Service Distributor Europe in the CONTEXT ChannelWatch 2020 awards, voted for by channel partners across the region who rate their distributors on a wide range of key service areas.
CONTEXT ChannelWatch is one of the world’s largest online IT-reseller surveys. As part of the survey, resellers in each country nominate distributors they work with for the CONTEXT ChannelWatch Distributor of the Year Awards.
Weak sales of printer toner show that many firms are not rushing a return to the office in the wake of the coronavirus lockdowns.
Context bean counters have added up some numbers and reached the conclusion that the UK is behind the rest of Europe trying to get workers back to their old desks.
The firm found that toner is one of the products that is closely linked to workplace presence, and examined four week rolling sales through distribution in the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.
The results were that the UK lagged behind other most other European countries in terms of staff returning to offices, with only Norway, Denmark, the Baltics and Brazil registering slower rates of a shift away from mass working from home.
The enterprise printing market should have no problems recovering after the lockdown according to a Context report.
While sales of low-cost consumer products have boomed as workers looked to get hardware for their home offices things could be swinging back in the favour of enterprise print specialists.
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Beancounters at analyst outfit Context has added up some numbers and asking around and reached the conclusion that the European channel has been feeling a lot better about itself since late May.
When asked how the climate was last week, compared to the prior seven days, 59 percent indicated that things remained the same and 28 percent saw things improving. Only 13 percent saw the climate worsening.
An analysis of pipeline strength indicated that one-off deals when compared to the start of the year were down for many, but when compared to conditions on 1 April they were the same or improving for many resellers.
Beancounters at Context have added up some numbers after rolling the corporate dice and came to the conclusion that hardware has been the worst hit segment of the enterprise channel market in the first four months of this year.
According to it, data enterprise hardware revenue declines have widened from a per cent year on year in January, to 11 percent in March and 17 percent in April.
Context’s head of enterprise, Gurvan Meyer, said the market has been strongly impacted by the suspension of projects during the crisis.
Beancounters at Context have worked out that the channel has already started to show signs of bouncing back, with the four-week rolling average for year-on-year revenue sales growth climbing from to 4.6 percent in week 17, outperforming 2019 figures for the same period of -1.9 percent.The analyst house highlighted that resilience in the channel but is expecting Q2 numbers to come in with a 4.1 percent decline after a robust first quarter had delivered 4.8 percent increases.
Certain product areas continue to provide the channel with revenue growth opportunities, including: AV systems, mobile and desktop computing, software, and licences.
Recent weeks have also seen demand for warranties and service, ehealth devices, and games consoles. Context is warning that the biggest losers in the second quarter will be telecoms, printing hardware and consumables, displays and infrastructure and security.
Context global managing director Adam Simon, said: “With most of Europe still furloughed, B2B projects have been put on hold, while consumer sentiment is dropping fast as unemployment bites and savings are depleted. However, there are some bright spots. Mobile computing and software will account for nearly €7 billion in revenue in Q2 and computing components are making a turnaround as supply issues ease.”
With the economic problems having been sparked by coronavirus rather than the financial crisis of 2008 he thinks any recession will be short.
Supply problems and the impact of the Easter holidays have taken some toll on the channel over the last few weeks according to analysis from Context.
The Easter break, and the double bank holiday days of Good Friday and Easter Monday, reduced trading and pushed the UK into its first decline of the year, The same problems also had an impact on trading in Germany and Spain.
Context uses a rolling four-week average to track the response to the virus and found that the last few weeks, to 6 April, have been tougher for the channel across Western Europe.
A surge in demand for home working hardware and software had bolstered growth across the region, helping the channel to produce 10 percent growth in the week of 16 March.
The channel is racing to find stock due to a sudden spike in home working products.
While these sales levels look good on the balance sheet they are not so good for channel inventory levels.
Context, which gets its numbers directly from distributors across Western Europe, has set up a Covid-19 weekly report tracking the performance of some key product lines.
Analyst outfit Context has worked out that resellers are cashing in on managed print services.
While the personal printer market is dying a significant death, Industrial 3D printing is growing.
Beancounters at Context have been adding up some numbers and dividing by their shoe size and concluded that sales of industrial 3D printers continued to grow during 2018 while the personal printer market once again saw a decline.
According to the market intelligence firm, machine shipments of industrial models are projected to show a 27 per cent increase year-on-year, having already posted a strong 19 per cent growth during the first three quarters of 2018.
By contrast, sales figures for desktop 3D printers, which revealed a 13 per cent decline globally during Q1-Q3, are predicted to have continued in the fourth quarter, resulting in an overall reduction in worldwide shipments when compared with 2017.
The professional and design segments are also expected to reach single-digit positive growth for the year overall, despite single-digit declines in shipments year-to-date Q1-Q 3 2018.
Within the industrial 3D printer segment, polymer (plastic) and metal printer shipments saw robust growth during the first three quarters of the year.
Polymer model shipments rose by 12 per cent over the period thanks to steady increases in the US and Europe, as well as growth from manufacturers such as Carbon (up 65 per cent) and HP (up 31 per cent) – while significant domestic sales from China’s Union Tech also contributed significantly.
Industrial 3D metal printer brands such as GE Addictive, 3D Systems and EOS saw “nice growth”, while new, lower-priced models from brands such as Markforged “saw shipments soar in 2018”, Context said.
The market intelligence firm added that, while unit volumes are dominated by sub–$2,500 personal printers, more than 70 per cent of global printer revenues are generated by the industrial segment.
Context VP Chris Connery said: “The industrial segment saw good growth both in polymer 3D-printer shipments – up +31 per cent year-on-year – and metals 3D-printer shipments which were up a phenomenal increase of 62 per cent for the quarter.”
Despite final global shipping figures for personal 3D printers in 2018 being an unprecedented 370,000 plus, the figure could represent a “single-to-double-digit drop” on the approximate 400,000 total clocked up in 2017.
Sales stalled due to limited crowd source project wins, the impact of tariffs on Chinese goods shipping to the US, shipment declines for market leaders, as well as a shift back to DIY/kit solutions which only hobbyists find attractive, he said.
Consumer tech is not expected to see a Black Friday surge this year, according to market watcher Context.
Its predictions are based on analysis of distribution volumes into retailers and etailers over a six-week period at the start of the fourth quarter.
Adam Simon, global MD at Context, said most vendors prepare for this event in advance by ensuring most of their shipments to retailers and distributors are mostly complete by the end of week 39.
Beancounters at Context have said that distributors across Europe have done well in the third quarter and should see more growth.
An analysis of how distribution has performed across Europe in the third quarter from Context showed that there was 7.1 percent year-on-year growth in Q3.
That growth can be added to 5.4 percent in the second quarter and the 4.7 percent generated in the first.
Beancounters at analyst outfit Context have added up some numbers and reached the conclusion that the Channel has been doing rather well.
The Context ChannelWatch 2018 report surveyed resellers across 14 countries, including the UK and mainland Europe.
Brexit uncertianty caused the UK to buck the reseller optimism trend, with optimism about the year ahead lower than it was in 2017.
There were also signs in the report that the number of resellers had stabilised after a three per cent decline last year. Nearly half of the firms surveyed had been going for more than 15 years, underlining that this is a mature market.
Drilling down into where the channel growth is coming from business services topped the list. It changes depending on area with manufacturing strong in the UK and Eastern Europe expecting retail to deliver the growth.
Context global managing director Adam Simon said it was reassuring to see the IT channel as a whole in pretty good health as we head into the second half of 2018.
“However, despite the optimism in the market for the coming 12 months, challenges persist: not least in areas like financing, staff recruitment and retention, GDPR compliance and the threat to distribution posed by etailers”, he added.
Distributor sales revenues from large format displays (LFDs) grew by eight percent in the third quarter.
Beancounters at CONTEXT have added up some numbers and divided by their shoe size and concluded that despite the positive growth of LFDs, interest in videowalls remains high even if sales declined by nine per cent year-on-year.
Revenues and volume sales in Western Europe declined in that period, with weakness coming from all screen sizes, says CONTEXT. The only growth spot was 49-inch displays, the sales of which more than tripled.
Despite the weak performance of videowalls, standard and interactive displays saw double-digit sales growth in early Q3. Amongst standard LFDs, 55-inch displays remain dominant, but there is a visible trend towards smaller 49-inch, 43-inch and even 32-inch displays, together with growing by 82 percent.
Ultra large displays, 85-inch and above, still account for a smaller volume share but interest increased. Volumes of these models more than doubled in early Q3. Amongst displays with a touchscreen, the most significant shift has been noticed for LFDs with 75-inch, which now account for over 20 percent of volume sales.
The first eight weeks of Q3 saw the average selling price (ASP) decline across all types of displays. For instance, the ASP of the most popular 55-inch non-touch LFDs dropped by over €100, which is a 10 percent decrease year-on-year.
CONTEXT Senior Analyst for Displays at, Dominika Koncewicz said: “Strong sales in early Q3 follow the already very positive trend for LFDs at the beginning of 2018, which should continue in the second half of the year. Despite weak performance, we should see more videowalls as well as increasing interest in high brightness outdoor displays.”
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