ASBIS moves into new markets in Europe

In 1995, ASBIS founder and CEO Serhei Kostevitch sought to move his Belarus-based IT distribution company to a location in Western Europe. His company was already taking wholesale IT market share around Eastern Europe, and he was ready for a new challenge. 

And he chose Limassol, Cyprus for his new corporate headquarters. 

Working from Limassol, Kostevitch extended the reach of his IT distribution company across Europe, and even into Africa. Today, ASBIS is one of the largest distributors of Apple products in the world, and works with many other major manufacturers. 

The company earned revenue of $1.9 billion in 2019, about the same record amount that it saw in 2018. Its gross profit margin was much improved in the same period, to 5.44 per cent from 4.7 per cent in the previous year. 

In 2020, ASBIS has stayed profitable right through the novel coronavirus crisis.

“We saw a slowdown at first, for several weeks, but then the need for remote working in the lockdown offered new opportunities,” Kostevitch explains. “And we’re very flexible, very good at reacting promptly and effectively in difficult situations.”

He adds: “And then, people always need IT. Work doesn’t go on without it.” The need of consumers for systems related to creating, sending and sharing information remained very high in the first quarter of this year, according to the company’s first quarter financial report.

Revenue increased 19.9 per cent in the first quarter of 2020 – right through the pandemic. In the first quarter, there was significant demand for products from specific segments, such as laptops, monitors and network products which are essential to work remotely, but also of home entertainment, the company reports.

“We have begun to work with very large clients, like data centres, and this is developing into an important line of business,” Kostevitch adds.

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