D&H Set To Post 14 Percent Sales Growth For 2011

Boosted by a 27 percent increase in sales of notebook and desktop systems, D&H Distributing is poised to end the year with a 14 percent increase in sales to $2.8 billion.

The 2011 sales numbers continue a streak of 12 years of average double digit sales growth for the employee-owned Harrisburg, Pa. technology products distributor, which has been profitable every year since it was founded 93 years ago.

"We saw significant growth with all our hardware vendors, including Lenovo, HP and Acer,"said Dan Schwab, co-president of D&H, a favorite of SMB-focused VARs. "Our VARs are taking advantage of the upgrade cycle in the small business market. Small businesses are still investing in technologies that help them drive their business goals."

Besides notebooks and desktops, other areas of strong growth for D&H for 2011 included: network security with a 23 percent sales increase; server products with a 22 percent increase in sales; and tablet computers, printers and power protection products with a 20 percent sales increase.

Lenovo's sales growth with D&H is in line with the distributor's 27 percent overall increase in sales of notebooks and desktops, said Chris Frey, vice president of North America Commercial Channels at Lenovo. "We grew in notebooks with them," he said. "But we had a higher percent growth off a smaller base in the desktop market. We agreed with them that the desktop refresh isn't over." He said Lenovo's All In One desktop sales through D&H were particularly strong.

Frey praised D&H's "strategic" and "tactical" ability to grow sales, working hand in hand with Lenovo in the small business, niche partner market. "They have a very, very good foothold and relationships with those partners," he said of D&H.

"The markets that D&H serves represents pure percent growth for us," said Frey. "We don't use D&H as a fulfillment mechanism. We use them to touch markets that we can't touch on our own. Those growth numbers truly represent decisions we both made on markets we want to touch. D&H's strength is driving sales programs and campaigns."

Lenovo leveraged D&H's reach into College Campus resellers and in the small business market, said Frey. He said Lenovo will team with the D&H team in February to chart sales strategies for the new year.

D&H, for its part, sees SMB technology sales growth continuing into 2012 with a strong information technology refresh cycle sparked in part by the eagerly anticipated launch of Microsoft's Windows 8 and Windows 8-based Tablet products.

To fuel that product refresh cycle, D&H plans to increase credit for partners by $25 million in 2012. D&H estimates that additional credit could power 20 percent additional sales growth for select solution providers.

Next: D&H Sees Bright Sales Outlook For 2012

"We're very positive about 2012 prospects," said D&H Co-President Michael Schwab. "If you look at the different sectors of the economy, technology is first and foremost where there is opportunity. End users recognize that if they are going to compete they can not sacrifice being on the far end of the technology curve. Our resellers are in a great position to keep evangelizing and delivering best in class solutions."

D&H is planning a number of new initiatives to drive continued sales growth for 2012, including a new Partner Services program aimed at helping partners market their own specific technology solutions.

A new Partner Services program, which will be launched in February 2012 at no cost to partners, includes links to marketing collateral, product images and vendor logos along with training videos like "Why EMR (Emergency Medical Records) For Healthcare."

D&H is also continuing its series of technical short videos with an Intel RAID console installation tutorial and a Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials tutorial slated for the first quarter 2012. D&H said additional training videos will be available to solution providers throughtout 2012.

The distributor is also planning regional city workshops dinner events for intensive manufacturer instruction for a limited number of D&H solution providers.

Solution providers said they are excited about the new services for 2012. They praised the distributor's ability to move more quickly on any number of sales and technical support issues in comparison with larger competitors.

D&H provides SonicWall license renewals instantly, compared with next business day or even two days for other distributors, said Lydia McCloskey, product manager for HTS Voice & Data Systems, San Antonio, Texas. "That kind of instant response makes me look good in my end user's eyes," said McCloskey. "Next day isn't good enough. That is where D&H has really been able to take care of me."

"There is no reason an e-mail renewal like that should take more than a couple of hours," she said. "D&H provides small town treatment of my account. There is a different mindset when you work with D&H. I think the employee-owned aspect of the business really plays into how quickly I get what I need. It's not just a paycheck to D&H employees. "

McCloskey is optimistic about 2012 sales prospects both for HTS and D&H. "Based on what we are seeing this holiday season, I see customers making substantial infrastructure improvements in the new year," she said.

D&H's superior services levels have also won the praise of LightEdge, a Des Moines, Iowa managed services provider that added products to its portfolio in the last 18 months.

D&H's Chicago warehouse has provided quick turnaround on Cisco routing and switching products, said Jason Lanning, a procurement specialist for LightEdge."Our customer timelines for network builds are getting more stringent," he said. "We can get product in a day from D&H. They have shined from the get-go. It has made a huge difference for us."