Exclusive is an added-value distributor specialized in the marketing of new security, storage and networking technologies for corporate users.

Exclusive acts as the local representative for vendors. The company has established and continues to develop its network of resellers, and provides promotional, training and technical support for the solutions it markets.

The special expertise of Exclusive is to select those products that offer the perfect response to the issues addressed by companies on a daily basis. The majority of the products marketed by Exclusive are supplied by fast-growing vendors, and require a high degree of technical expertise and significant marketing support.
Exclusive has contributed to the European launch of startups that have grown to become essential players in the market:

• Ironport, the market leader in e-mail security solutions, which was acquired by Cisco in 2007
  
• Fortinet, the market leader in Unified Threat Management (flotation scheduled for November 2009)
  
• Data Domain, the market leader in deduplication storage, which was acquired by EMC² in July 2009 for $2.1 billion
  
• …

Exclusive differs decisively from its competitors in terms of business model, which is based on establishing exclusive or preferred partnerships with a restricted number of vendors. The teams of Exclusive are seen as an extension of vendors’ in-house teams, and have their own clearly-defined tasks:

• The recruitment and coordination of the partners network
  
• Operational marketing
  
• Technical support and training
• Logistics and customer risk management
• …

CREATION OF THE COMPANY
Exclusive Networks was created in 1995 in Lyon by Xavier Lafaure as Techniland System. The company began by marketing networking and communications solutions to companies. By the dawn of the 21st century, changes in the market had required Techniland to become a distributor, and the company was representing vendors such as Bintec and Efficient Networks.
At the end of 2003, Xavier Lafaure decided to seek outside investment to give his company a second wind.

THE ACQUISITION OF TECHNILAND
In December 2003, Philippe Dambrine and Olivier Breittmayer bought 70% of Techniland (then reporting revenue of €1.5 million), and began to work with Xavier Lafaure to transform the company into an added value distributor of IT security solutions.
Techniland then signed agreements with a number of promising suppliers, including Fortinet, Barracuda and Aventail, and opened a Paris office with a highly experienced and highly credible staff of four. Success soon followed, as Techniland doubled its turnover in 2004 (to €3 million) and looked set to do the same again in 2005 (to €6 million). In the middle of that year, Xavier Lafaure informed the other shareholders that he intended to leave the company.

CHANGE OF MANAGEMENT… CHANGE OF STRATEGY
In August 2005, Olivier Breittmayer replaced Xavier Lafaure at the head of the company.
New distribution contracts were signed with top-class suppliers, including Ironport, Infoblox and F5, and the sales and technical teams were expanded. Again, success came very quickly, with Techniland reporting revenue of €14 million in 2006, as the company began to establish itself as an essential player in the French market.
At the start of 2006, the management team asked itself the question: “How can we continue to sustain such a high level of growth without adding too many suppliers and losing added value?”.
The answer was that they would have to do more with the suppliers they already had!
At this time, suppliers worked with 1, 2 or 3 distributors in each country, so that revenue was shared. Signing a contract and trying to capture the majority of the existing business with a given supplier had become the central growth strategy of distributors in the market. The result was a significant loss of added value, an uncontrolled decline in margins and dissatisfaction amongst vendors, who could no longer rely on distributors to supply the continuity they expected.

Techniland was sharing distribution of its leading brands (Fortinet, Ironport, Infoblox, etc.) with one or two other distributors.
The action plan was to offer its key suppliers exclusive distribution in exchange for additional sales, technical and marketing resources and an aggressive business plan.
In September 2006, after several months of negotiation, five of these key vendors accepted to grant de facto (non-contractual) exclusivity to Techniland.

As part of improving its professional image and basing its communication on the new strategy, Techniland changed its name to Exclusive Networks in November 2006.
With its new strategy, Exclusive Networks was able to report revenue of €24 million in France in 2007, reflecting 71% growth.

INTERNATIONAL GROWTH
Encouraged by the success of this new strategy, Exclusive Networks made the decision to expand into the wider European market at the start of 2007.
The shareholders then decided to raise €3 million in venture capital to fund the expansion, which was achieved on 15 June 2007, when Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners took a 34% equity stake in the business.
The strategy was clear: to establish a presence in one of the two major countries (UK or Germany) and in at least three other countries close to France, either by forming subsidiary companies or through acquisition.

The goal of the project and the funding available to the company imposed the following choices:

• For acquisitions: small-scale targets to which Exclusive could contribute the ingredients required to boost growth (new products and additional staff)
  
• For new company formations: a local management team capable of bringing with them their own teams and suppliers to ensure a fast startup

In order to maximize the chances of success, the decision was made to give the managers of foreign subsidiary companies an equity interest in their businesses.

• Acquisition of Netdirect in Belgium (July 2007)
  
• Formation of Exclusive Networks Spain (September 2007)
  
• Acquisition of QDIS in Holland (December 2007)
  
• Formation of Exclusive Networks Italy (February 2008)
  
• Creation of an Export Department for French-Speaking African countries (February 2008)
  
• Formation of Exclusive Networks UK (June 2008)
  
• Formation of Exclusive Portugal (December 2008)
  
• Acquisition of Arc Technology Ltd. in the UK (July 2009)
  
• Formation of Exclusive Sweden (September 2009)

This international growth has helped Exclusive Group to establish itself as one Europe’s leading industry players.
Exclusive Group has a presence in 9 European countries, employs 116 people and has set a revenue target for 2009 of €82 million, representing a 64% increase over 2008.
Most of the business structures in place in its operating countries are still modest in size, but are growing very rapidly and offer impressive prospects for very strong future growth.

Exclusive Group continues to examine opportunities for growth in those areas not yet covered, either through company formation in smaller countries or through the acquisition route in larger countries.

Its new Swedish company creates opportunities for Exclusive in the other countries of Scandinavia, which could soon be the target for future operations.

During its 3 years of international growth, Exclusive Group has demonstrated its abilities in terms of company formation and the development of new structures, as well in the acquisition and integration of existing companies.
With more than 50% of its revenue generated outside France, Exclusive can now legitimately claim to be a truly international group of companies.

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