More than 100 staff gone since Dicker bought Express Data

Dicker Data's most recent ASX report sheds light on the significant headcount changes since it acquired rival distributor Express Data.

Before it bought Express Data for $65.5 million in February 2014, Dicker Data had just 100 staff. The addition of Express Data's headcount took the total up to 460 employees.

However, the distie has seen considerable downsizing over the past six months, with its ASX announcement reporting a "progressive reduction in headcount", largely due to "duplication of functions".

Dicker's current headcount is 350, showing that more than 100 people have parted ways with the distie over the nine months since the buyout – a nearly 25 percent reduction in the workforce.

Redundancies represented the majority of $4 million restructuring bill in the six months to 31 December 2014. Since then, Dicker paid out another $500,000 in redundancies in January 2015.

Sales per head

Chief executive David Dicker told CRN this morning that there was more work to come to get the company's sales-per-headcount metric to its target of at least $4 million per employee.

"My prefered option would be to increase the sales to the required number. I don't want to fire people, but by the same token we need to run our company by the metrics that we know work," he said.

If Dicker Data were to reach its $1 billion full-year revenue target on the current headcount, it would be generating $2.9 million of sales per head, though Dicker alluded to further changes ahead. "The number in Australia is 285, which is not too far away from where we need it to be. New Zealand is not really where we want it to be."

David Dicker said revenue per head had typically been over $4 million and close to $5 million for the past decade.

This compares favourably to other distributors, especially Express Data, which had sales of $798 million and 358 staff in the fiscal year to 30 September 2013 – just $2.2 million per head.

According to its most recent financial report lodged with corporate regulator ASIC, Ingram Micro Australia had sales of $1.4 billion and 447 staff in the fiscal year to 28 December 2013, a revenue per head of $3.13 million.

In the fiscal year to 31 December 2013, Synnex Australia turned over $1.6 billion and employed 413 staff, a revenue per head of $3.9 million.

Dicker's half-year results – its first set of numbers since the takeover completed – show the company is on track to hits its forecast $1 billion of revenue.