Specialism: Spare parts and hardware
Key vendors: Dell, HP, HPE, Cambium, Raritan, Ubiquiti, Bixolon, Cipherlab, Star Micronics, Evoko, Leyard, Neoumounts
UK revenue: £37.5m (-9%)
Headcount (UK&I): 30 (UK and Ireland)
Specialising in spare parts, networking, POS & Auto-ID, and Pro AV, EET prides itself on helping customers find even the most obscure products and solutions, UK MD Sunil Bouri told us (see Q&A below).
UK revenues are set to rebound to around £39m in 2024, halting two straight years of decline (the 2023 tally fell 9% to £37.5m in its last filed accounts covering calendar 2023), according to Bouri. EET’s Irish arm – which serves the European needs of some UK customers post-Brexit – chipped in an additional €7m.
In 2023, Denmark-headquartered parent EET Group delivered total revenue of €624m.
“We have more than doubled our warehouse capacity in the UK”
Quickfire Q&A with UK MD Sunil Bouri
What is EET’s sweet spot?
Unfortunately, it’s not our branded liquorice and strawberry sweets. Other great EET merchandise is also available and has been well received!
It has to be, matching our customers’ sweet spot through our wide offering, which we can tailor accordingly with configuration services, bundling, climate conscious shipping and easy integration.
Which product, service or vendor has stood out for you in 2024?
Privacy filters and phone & tablet accessories by eStuff and MicroConnect cables have seen us support some great projects across enterprise, healthcare and government.
Partnering with specialist retail & hospitality software providers to deliver their hardware requirements directly to merchants across Europe every day.
If you could change one thing about your business at the stroke of a wand, what would it be?
Customer satisfaction. We take pride in helping customers find the right products and solutions across a variety of technology requirements; even the most hard to find or obscure. However, I see more often than I would like, that manufacturing issues, inaccurate ETAs and/or shipment delays cause frustration for our teams and customers. We have improved stock levels across our central warehouse and have more than doubled our warehouse capacity in the UK to try reduce the effects of this. We need to be better at communicating these challenges when they happen but also initially highlighting them so partners can capture new opportunities.
When will the UK distribution market return to growth?
There is still growth in some areas but fair to say see we have seen some flatlining or declines in the last year. Some market uncertainty has now been removed by the UK election and budget, which will make a difference. We do anticipate growth in 2025 overall but believe some pressures will remain on areas already under pressure and they will rebound more gradually.
Name one area of your business where you are expecting to add staff in 2025
Our networking business has seen good growth, so we will continue to invest here. As an Elite Distributor for Ubiquiti and brands like Cambium, Rairtan and Lanview, we see opportunities across Wi-Fi, fixed wireless access, power distribution, data racks and structured cabling.
At its Channel Forums EMEA in October, Canalys characterised AWS Marketplace as one of the world’s largest distributors, owing to its growing third-party software business. On balance, do you agree?
Yes, whilst at first I didn’t think ‘distributor’, it is ultimately the same as what Amazon currently does for brands and sellers selling physical products through their product marketplace.
If you could be a fly on the wall for a day at another distributor, which would you choose?
QBS Technology Group. We focus on hardware, so seeing software only, with their ambitions would make for an interesting day!
See who made the wider Oxygen 50 Must-Know IT Distributors 2024 here.
