Distribution faces some strong headwinds, and firms are charting different courses to navigate their route forward.

Despite the challenges, distributor Westcon-Comstor (Westcon International) increased its revenues last year by 4.6%, to $2.6 billion.

David Grant, CEO, Westcon-Comstor, says the company’s growth is down to making the business as simple as possible.

Westcon-Comstor’s David Grant

“We put a huge amount of focus also into automation and efficiency as well as resilience. The advantage of that is that we’ve managed to grow sales without increasing costs,” he said.

But the key, he said, is “focusing on the customers, vendors, partners. If we get that right, the rest of it should look after itself. I know that might sound simplistic, but it is pretty much the case.”

Grant said supporting the channel during the pandemic has been paramount “so that channel didn’t feel like they were abandoned in any way, shape or form. We overcommunicated in some cases to make sure that knew we were here, and how they can get hold of us. We also stayed connected with our employees, providing updates all the time on where we were what we were thinking.”

In the slideshow above, Grant delves into the company’s plans for flexible working, sustainability, diversity. He also talks about the impact of the semiconductor chip shortage and Brexit on the business.