Dabs CEO John Thornhill updates KitGuru on his business

As with all news sites, KitGuru is often hit with wave after wave of rumour, intrigue and innuendo. Before writing anything, we like to know that we've heard the same thing from at least 2 sources. Not always possible, but it's our preferred method. Recently, we wrote a speculation piece on how the future mind look for Dabs if it was to be sold by BT. Today we're happy to bring you the inside track – direct from the CEO's mouth. It's time for KitGuru to wash away any lingering rumours and set forth the Dabs view of the world.

“Our business is up year on year”, said Thornhill. “We're investing in connected home and eBay, our business arm is also up year on year and we’re investing in people and IT, and looking at long term leases on new property”.

Now that's what we like to call straight talk.

Referring to the overall size of the Dabs business, Thornhill is very specific, “We've just tipped £164 million and grown our revenues by 10% year on year”. Big number, certainly seems to be healthy.

Even so, it seems that the parent company wants to grow even further.

According to Thornhill, “We’ve just had significant investment from BT in people, capex and more in 2010”. Positive stuff.

Seems the company is here to stay when he says, “”We’re looking to take long term leases on new property in the area”.

We all know that sales go in cycles. Just because IDC reports that the locally-built, mid-sized tower market dropped 44% from Q1 2010 to Q1 2011, everyone can see just how much consumers are now spending on Apple products. It's a genuine case of swings and roundabouts.

Thornhill also points out interesting growth areas, “Our ICT network sales are up over 100% year on year, Dabs’ consumer business is up year on year”.

Discussing the differences between the Dabs and BT web sites, Thornhill sheds light on a substantial backend development programme, “We have been white-labelling different sites for some time for BT Shop, Public Sector Store etc. If anything, we’re growing that with UC devices etc”.

Dabs believes that its offer in the market is truly unique. For example, KitGuru also mentioned Scan in the last article. Thornhill highlights how much more Dabs does when he says, “Components is probably the only area where we might come across Scan”.

So, overall, Thornhill is clear that Dabs is doing fantastically well as a business entity.

Is it just his opinion? Seems not, “Our performance and growth was also specifically referenced in BT Groups annual results presentation to city analysts as a key area for future investment”, said Thornhill.

KitGuru says: Solid stuff from Dabs’ CEO John Thornhill and we really appreciate him taking the time to respond to KitGuru in this way.

Comments below or in the KitGuru forum.

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