Planning For The Future 

For a company in the middle of integrating two large distributors into the world‘s largest IT distributor, TD Synnex is making significant progress. TD Synnex Tuesday reported its first financial report since the historic merger between Tech Data and Synnex in September. For its fourth fiscal quarter 2021, which ended Nov. 30, TD Synnex reported revenue of $15.6 billion, which was down 2 percent when adjusted for the impact of the merger, along with adjusted free cash flow from continuing operations of $520.2 million. For the year, TD Synnex reported combined non-GAAP revenue of $60.6 billion, up 8.3 percent over the total revenue legacy Tech Data and Synnex reported for the year before.

TD Synnex CEO Rich Hume, in an exclusive discussion with CRN, said the integration of the two legacy distributors into the new TD Synnex is proceeding ahead of schedule as employees are already clear about their roles, credit for channel partners is being expanded, and the transition to a single ERP system is moving quickly. Plans are in place for further acquisitions as well, he said.

Not everything is going smoothly however, as, Hume said supply chain issues are growing, but not just because of a backlog of unfilled orders.

“I think that backlog represents current demand, but the world is sort of recognizing now that lead times are elongated,” he said. “So I would also suggest that within that backlog, we see future order needs based on our customers anticipating lead times. In other words, if they believe that a product is four months out, they‘re going to post the order up now in order to have a chance of getting it in that four-month time frame.”

Hume also talked about uncertainty caused by COVID-19 and the government response, but said TD Synnex is not concerned about any geopolitical issues, including the rising tension between the U.S. and China.

Here is what Hume had to say about a range of issues.