Kelway's light burns bright

The 43% headline revenue growth at privately held value-added reseller Kelway tells a pretty good story, though a goodly chunk came from the acquisition of ISC Computers at the back end of 2010. But growth came at a price. Gross margins for the year to 31st March lost 3 points to land at 16.4% on turnover of £350m. However, most of the margin was recovered  through lower SG&A, leaving operating margins at 3.4%, 10bps down yoy. Rather like much larger peer Specialist Computer Centre, Kelway likes to hide its light under a bushel (see ‘Mysterious House of Rigby’ severs distribution arm), but nonetheless, it seems to be burning brightly enough.