Market and competition
As with every company, Bechtle is dependent on developments in the industry’s economy and the macroeconomy. Positive economic development means opportunities for successful corporate growth. But even if the macroeconomy or the industry stagnates or declines, Bechtle has the opportunity to grow faster than the market and thus expand its relative market share. In the reporting period, we were partly confronted with persistent weakness both in macroeconomic development and within the IT industry. Particularly in the two segments Germany and France, small and medium-sized customers were still reluctant to invest in IT. Nevertheless, the IT market is a growth market in the medium to long term. Bechtle will be able to profit from this. The general demand for IT driven by the digital transformation will increase – and with our international presence in 14 European country markets, our broad solution expertise and the diversity of customer groups and sizes, we are very well positioned.
The IT market is characterised by rapid technological innovation and relatively short product cycles. Due to advancing digitalisation, information technology is becoming increasingly important. IT is therefore an integral part of operational value creation and a decisive success factor for all companies and public institutions. At the same time, due to the complexity of IT, many enterprises need competent partners for the successful and secure operation of their IT infrastructures. This is also increasingly affecting the area of high-quality services such as managed or multi-cloud services. Most customers also rely on the expertise of an experienced partner for questions relating to the use of artificial intelligence (AI), the implications of which are still not fully foreseeable, and with regard to the possibilities for greater digital sovereignty. For this reason, the markets addressed by Bechtle in Europe continue to harbour vast and increasing growth potential. Our product and service portfolio covers almost all major current and foreseeable future needs of industrial customers and public-sector clients. This comprehensive offering also sets Bechtle apart from the majority of its direct competitors. In terms of strategic and structural positioning, our company is well prepared to make use of any newly emerging growth potential.
IT markets in the individual European countries – especially in German-speaking regions – have been in a phase of consolidation for several years; something that Bechtle is making good use of. Thanks to our robust financial resources and good reputation, we have been able to complete 124 acquisitions since our company was founded, continuously strengthening our market position. In view of the progressive consolidation in the industry and the Bechtle Group’s persistently excellent assets position and funding, our company will have further opportunities to continue to fortify our competitive position through further Europe-wide acquisition-based growth in future, for instance by means of acquisitions or by expanding the product and service spectrum. By linking the existing product business in the respective countries with system integration services, we are improving our market position and increasing our growth potential. Against this background, Bechtle made four acquisitions in three countries in the reporting period.
Bechtle is well positioned to further strengthen its position throughout Europe in the future through acquisitions.
The Bechtle Group occupies a leading competitive position in Germany and Europe. This size creates opportunities in sales, as Bechtle can set itself apart from a great many of its competitors with a comprehensive portfolio of solutions and a holistic view of the customer’s IT. High availability and therefore fast delivery times are also of great importance when selecting an IT partner. This likewise represents an opportunity for Bechtle with its very good and close relationships with its suppliers. We are one of the preferred partners of all well-known IT manufacturers and distributors in Europe. Despite its size, Bechtle’s decentralised structure and the resulting close proximity to its customers enable it to quickly and flexibly leverage any weaknesses of its competitors for the purpose of increasing the regional market penetration. In this way, we combine the size and financial strength of an international business with the agility and customer proximity of a local medium-sized company.
Customers
Bechtle has a broadly diversified customer structure – from medium-sized customers to large corporations – and serves it via various channels. We have historically developed a particularly high level of expertise in business with SME customers. Thanks to our broad diversification, economic sector developments and specific investment framework conditions at individual companies only have a significant impact on us at regional level.
The success of the Bechtle Group as a whole is not endangered, as our company has the opportunity to balance and compensate for the weaknesses of individual sectors or regions. This is another reason why we have medium-term plans to offer the entire portfolio, including services, in all 14 European countries where Bechtle has a presence. The unique aspect of regional customer proximity will thus be complemented by comprehensive support for our customers in an international context, too. As Bechtle is the only system house in Europe with a presence throughout Western and Central Europe, this unique selling point offers us a wide range of opportunities.
Public-sector clients are an important customer segment for Bechtle. In recent years, their share of the business volume has increased significantly; in the reporting period, we achieved around 40 per cent of our business volume with them. We have always seen it as a great opportunity to specialise in the requirements of public-sector clients and to take into account the particularities of procurement practice in this customer segment. In recent years, it has been confirmed that the investment behaviour of this customer group is less susceptible to economic cycles.
It is therefore conceivable that clients from the public sector may even increase their demand in times of crisis. The ongoing digitalisation trend has further increased the opportunities for successfully expanding business in this customer segment in the future. Moreover, the need for digitalisation is also driven by the corresponding legal requirements, which could trigger further demand on the part of these customers. This can be seen not least in the new German Federal Ministry for Digital Transformation and Government Modernisation, founded in 2025, which has set itself the goal of making Germany more digital, faster and less bureaucratic.
In view of the €500 billion special fund for infrastructure and climate neutrality created in the reporting period, demand from the public sector in Germany could increase even more significantly. Over the next few years, this budget should provide additional impetus in areas such as civil defence and protection, transport and energy infrastructure, education, housing construction and, last but not least, digitalisation. This means that we can benefit both directly and indirectly if German SMEs – one of our most important customer groups – experience an upturn in demand and thus also will invest more in their own IT infrastructure. Bechtle’s long-standing presence in the IT market, and in particular in the customer group of small to medium-sized companies, represents a high barrier to market entry for potential competitors. A strong competitive position in the SME segment thus enables our company to expand our positioning and perception in this area. At the same time, we also want to further intensify our business with large customers.
We operate in the transactional product business in 14 European countries. We want to further expand our market share in all of these countries, irrespective of acquisitions. This is to be promoted by means of marketing measures that address a wider spectrum of customers and by further internationalising the business. With the Bechtle International Division (BID), we offer a comprehensive range of services, especially for cross-border transactions, which is supplemented by global delivery capability via the Global IT Alliance (GITA) established in 2014. The BID is particularly involved in projects with internationally active groups and large medium-sized companies with a multinational presence. This demand could increase further in the future due to the increasing internationalisation of our customers.
At bechtle.com, Bechtle in turn merges the trading business of its online shops with the service offering of the system houses on a single digital platform. The Bechtle Clouds offering is also to be integrated into bechtle.com this year. Overall, bechtle.com will continue to develop into a holistic online platform and will be further expanded in the coming years, driven by our Digital Business Services. This provides the opportunity to offer customers Bechtle’s entire portfolio, to better utilise existing potential and to exploit synergies. Additionally, bechtle.com will be expanded further in order to increasingly advance digitalisation in customer contact and order behaviour. This will also help us to increase our own productivity and improve our own efficiency.
Manufacturers and distributors
The Bechtle Group maintains close partnerships with all major vendors and distributors in the IT industry, and the majority of its certifications have the highest partner status. We treat our suppliers and vendors with respect and in a spirit of partnership in accordance with our sustainability strategy and the Bechtle Code of Conduct. We liaise closely with our strategic partners, regularly coordinate our focus with them and thus further develop our business model. Intensive cooperation with partner companies enables us to offer technology solutions that meet our customers’ growing demands at all times. Thus, we are expanding our growth opportunities especially by means of an extensive range of individual service solutions for corporate customers and public-sector clients.
Bechtle has very close and trusting relationships with its suppliers. Conversely, cooperation with Bechtle is also very important for suppliers, as we are one of the largest providers in the European IT market and can therefore reach many potential customers – thanks to our networked decentralisation, especially in the SME sector. This gives us the opportunity to benefit more than many of our competitors from bonus programmes offered by vendors and distributors.
To promote the strategic collaboration with key vendors, Bechtle employs Vendor Integrated Product Managers (VIPM). They know and promote the interests of the vendors as well as those of Bechtle. The advantage of VIPMs is that vendor information is forwarded to procurement, sales and service staff without delay in a centralised and target-oriented manner. This enables Bechtle to provide its customers with a range of services that is always state of the art. At the same time, this increases the quality of sales activities, and customers benefit immediately from innovative products from the respective vendors. In return, the vendors promptly receive largely unfiltered user feedback about existing products and requirements for future products.
The standardisation of logistics processes and the synchronisation of merchandise management systems between Bechtle and its partners also results in numerous synergies. This expands the product offer, increases the availability of the goods and enhances the attractiveness of Bechtle among other distributors and vendors. In addition, it gives our company the opportunity to further increase its efficiency and optimise its costs. Furthermore, improvements in logistical processes, and thus the avoidance of unnecessary transport, also offer opportunities to reduce CO2 emissions.
Service spectrum
IT is becoming increasingly complex. Enterprise customers are therefore dependent on IT consulting and largely expect their service provider to provide holistic solutions for their IT requirements from a single source, as well as advice to navigate them through the complex IT requirements. Bechtle offers its customers an extremely broad portfolio that covers all IT-related requirements. We are therefore ideally placed to benefit from this trend. Moreover, Bechtle has duly positioned itself through acquisitions, strategic alliances and competence centres especially tuned to market demand and trends, and strengthened its postition by hiring and retaining qualified staff. We intend to continue to develop in this regard in future.
In connection with the procurement and operation of IT, many companies usually focus on several features, such as competitiveness, efficiency gain and modernisation. To meet these diverse demands, Bechtle analyses the customer’s existing corporate processes in order to systematically offer solutions and IT management models such as outsourcing or multi-cloud services. Our broad portfolio enables us to devise optimal solutions that are tailored to each customer’s specific needs. As a full-service provider, we see great opportunities here compared to smaller competitors or niche providers. Customers also attach great importance to the reliability of their service provider when selecting their IT partner. This is not least due to the high and increasing relevance of IT for all company processes, on the one hand, and increased security concerns, on the other. In addition to its 42 years of experience and advanced solution expertise, Bechtle also enjoys a strong, solid financial position. These factors directly influence the choice of service provider, prices and how and from whom external services are procured. For Bechtle, as a financially very robust and reliable partner with a good reputation, opportunities for further attractive growth may result from this, especially in the so-called as-a-service business. These customer relationships are usually of a long-term nature, which facilitates business development planning. In addition, this area generally enables higher margins than the conventional trading or project business. While, during the pandemic, our customers ordered mainly conventional hardware, especially home office equipment, they are now investing more heavily in comprehensive infrastructures once again. At this point, Bechtle has the opportunity to provide customers with suitable as-a-service models, thereby benefiting from this longer-term, projectable higher-margin business.
For many years, we have been selling own-brand peripheral products under the name ARTICONA. The Bechtle Group has its own purchasing company in Taiwan for this purpose. The portfolio comprises IT accessories and connectivity products. ARTICONA is available to all companies of the Bechtle Group. In this way, all our customers benefit from the excellent value for money of the ARTICONA products, which also results in higher profitability.
We continue to see great growth potential in cloud services. Here, processing performance, storage, applications and IT services are obtained in real time via data networks. The fees for the individual services are based on actual usage. Bechtle is active in the cloud market both in cooperation with well-known partners and with its own range of solutions. It has a broad portfolio of virtualisation and server technologies, infrastructure solutions and security-relevant applications. Accordingly, we are able to meet specific customer needs relating to the provision and operation of cloud IT services. The offer is supplemented with consulting and integration services for cloud computing, as the specific services often need to be integrated and networked with existing systems. Cost management for the operation of cloud architectures is also part of our portfolio.
Bechtle Clouds represents another key aspect of our cloud offering. Under this name, Bechtle bundles public and business cloud services. As a multi-cloud service provider, Bechtle Clouds offers custom-produced cloud services as well as numerous public cloud solutions. This allows us to benefit from the growing demand for cloud services. The self-service marketplace enables scalable growth through comprehensive automation, including provisioning and billing. Overall, Bechtle wants to strengthen the platform business. Our CTO, who holds the position of Executive Vice President, is responsible for all platform activities at Bechtle: the Bechtle Service Factory with its managed service offerings, the further development of the central web platform bechtle.com, the Bechtle Clouds platform and the operation of the Bechtle data centres in Frankfurt am Main, Rüsselsheim and Mutterstadt. Last but not least, we recognise our customers’ growing need for orientation with regard to ensuring sustainably controllable digital infrastructures – in line with European rules, standards and values. Bechtle pursues a holistic, architecture-centred approach in the context of digital sovereignty. This involves the ability to recognise and reduce existing and future dependencies in order to design them in such a way that uninterrupted, controllable and economically efficient operating models are guaranteed. Bechtle uses a specially developed software-based measurement method to assess the digital sovereignty of customers from the private and public sectors. The Bechtle “Index of Sovereignty” focuses on the dimensions of data sovereignty, technological independence and organisational freedom. It enables customers to create transparency about any dependencies, identify risks to their self-determination capability and capacity to act, and take effective and sustainable steps to strengthen their sovereignty. In view of the many European commitments to strengthening independence, further business opportunities could arise for us as a European company in the coming years.
Digitalisation and the trending topic of artificial intelligence (AI) also offer opportunities for the Bechtle Group. The complexity of the industrial IT landscape as well as the relevance of IT to corporate workflows and production processes will continue to grow. The integration of IT in production processes and the incorporation of AI, in particular, require holistic thinking and competencies, both in the field of IT and in the field of engineering. In past years, Bechtle has prepared for these challenges through systematic training measures as well as acquisitions and is thus able to address the demand in this area. In the reporting period, Bechtle launched another internal qualification programme, the IT Solution Architect training course.
Company organisation
With more than 100 service-oriented companies, Bechtle has a strong presence in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, as well as in France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom and, since January 2026, in Portugal. The decentralised structure of the Bechtle Group is of great significance: every location is a separate legal entity with a Managing Director responsible for the business performance in its territory. The decentralisation principle creates opportunities by promoting a sense of responsibility and entrepreneurial drive at the individual locations. Moreover, locally and regionally positioned locations enable Bechtle to address the often medium-sized customers at eye level and at the same time – at the aggregate group level, as well as via the trading companies that operate on a nationwide basis – supra-regional companies and groups that need a large IT service provider as a trusted partner. The Bechtle Group thus benefits from decentralised responsibility and decision-making structures, on the one hand, and due to its size, from economies of scale with respect to centralised administrative tasks, as well as the centralised purchasing and logistics processes, on the other hand. Additionally, competence centres, specialised product management teams and segment heads bundle expertise that is made available centrally to all locations and segments.
The planned expansion of the service activities to all 14 European countries in which Bechtle is already represented with trading companies will result in the same opportunities in the respective countries as well as additional growth potential for the Bechtle Group.
The organised interaction between central support and decentralised market development by the local units increases the opportunities for growth in the respective market. This is the case, for example, in the public-sector division, in the application solutions segment, as well as in the fields of managed services and cloud services. Bechtle recognises clear opportunities in supporting the provision of services centrally wherever this is possible, or in taking them over completely in order to achieve efficiency gains and economies of scale.
Personnel
Employees are a key part of the Bechtle business model. Retaining employees on a long-term basis, maintaining high motivation and fostering a positive corporate culture are therefore essential to our business success. To further increase the attractiveness of Bechtle as an employer represents both a challenge and an opportunity. Bechtle conducts systematic employer branding to position itself as an attractive employer and uses its strong employer brand to recruit new staff to the company and to retain existing staff in the long term. We want to further expand our employer branding so that we can continue to operate successfully in the future.
When it comes to recruiting employees, the shortage of skilled workers poses a challenge for Bechtle. However, the limited availability of qualified people may create opportunities – for example, if we manage to train and develop skilled workers ourselves and thus cover our needs through our own initiatives. Apprenticeships are therefore a key focus of Bechtle’s HR work. Furthermore, we also invest intensively in the further training of our staff. This active career-development offering enhances the satisfaction of our employees, which translates into long-term loyalty. Our headcount is constantly growing, and our turnover rate of 7.6 per cent is below the industry average, indicating that Bechtle is successfully taking advantage of opportunities to recruit and retain employees.
Targeted training and further education are key success factors for Bechtle.
Since 2020, the group-wide satisfaction survey has been an integral part of Bechtle’s organisational development. The surveys are conducted in several successive rounds, in which all companies of the Bechtle Group – both nationally and internationally – participate at regular intervals of no more than two years. The most recent survey round was completed in August 2025. The insights gained are incorporated into the further development of HR work and employer branding. The fourth group-wide survey round is scheduled to start in 2026.
Sustainability
Sustainable business is a must in order to face the great challenges of our age, which range from environmental protection and climate-change mtigation to IT security, resilient supply chains and the protection of human rights along the value chain. As a responsible company, we want to tackle these challenges in close cooperation with the business world, civil society and politics, and we regard our sustainable operations as an opportunity to make a contribution to the general welfare.
Around the globe, the digital and ecological transformation of society and the economy is resulting in changing business models. This trend benefits companies such as Bechtle, which offer technologies and services for the successful design of these transformation processes. Digitalisation and investments in sustainability are making companies more innovative and crisis-proof.
We are seeing a rapidly rising number of enquiries, both on the part of our customers and on the part of the financial market, not only with regard to a sustainable product portfolio, but also with regard to our company’s corporate governance. We are convinced that the establishment of the sustainability management structure, the introduction of the Bechtle Sustainability Strategy 2030 and the associated goals and actions will open up great opportunities for positioning Bechtle as an innovative and sustainably acting IT company on a long-term basis.
In the area in which we operate, there is great potential in the fields of resource efficiency, recycling and IT security. With our portfolio of sustainable technologies, solutions and services, we are actively supporting our customers in the digital transformation and the fulfilment of their corporate digital responsibility.
Sustainable management is also an important criterion for attracting and retaining staff. Young people especially want to work for an employer who conducts sustainable business. We clearly sense this in interviews with applicants, apprentices and students.