ALSO Annual Report 2020

Over the past ten years, ALSO has laid a solid and scalable foundation for sustainable development. Find out how the company coped with the "New Normal," the time of the pandemic, and how it is preparing for the "Next Normal" in our Annual Report.

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ALSO Holding AG (ALSN.SW) (Emmen/Switzerland) is one of the leading technology providers for the ICT industry, currently active in 24 countries in Europe and in a total of 90 countries worldwide via PaaS partners. The ALSO ecosystem offers around 110 000 resellers hardware, software and IT services from more than 700 vendors in over 1340 product categories. In the spirit of the circular economy, the company provides all services from provision to refurbishment from a single source.

The Supply division comprises the transactional range of hardware and software. The Solutions division supports customers in the development of customized IT solutions. Subscription-based cloud offerings as well as platforms for cybersecurity, virtualization and AI are the focus of the Service area. The main shareholder is the Droege Group, Düsseldorf, Germany.

4 good reasons for investing in ALSO

  1. Invest into one of the key markets of the future
    The digital transformation will accelerate across all industries. As well as ‘on premise’, hard- and software will more and more be used ‘off premise’, i.e. cloud-based as IT-as-a-Service. Platforms for the Internet of Things (IoT), cybersecurity or streaming and other purposes, are offering immense potential for growth.
  2. Access to all market participants
    Our ecosystem comprises more than 700 vendors of hard- and software as well as more than 110,000 resellers, retailers and etailers. ALSO has a clear value proposition as a platform enabling its customers to focus on their respective strenghts. The route to market can be either transactional (buying) or consumptional (consumption-based billing), via our e-commerce shop or the ALSO Cloud Marketplace.
  3. Clear strategy
    Our MORE-Strategy defines four key activities: Maintain and strengthen the existing business; Optimize all processes and mesh all three business models; Reinvent new lines of business; Enhance market shares and technological competences. These activities are relevant to our three business models Supply, Solutions and as-a-Service. The combination of ALSO’s proprietary and distinguished platform, massive scale and customer reach makes the barriers to market entry nearly unsurmountable for other players.
  4. Successful management
    Our main focus is on a sustainably successful development of the company. Profitability and sustainable growth have been constantly improved. At the same time, we have been transforming the company and optimizing its capital structure.

Since 2011, ALSO revenue, gross profit, EBITDA and EAT have been growing constantly. This has been reflected in the ALSO share as well as the dividend development.

The ALSO ecosystem


After starting out as a wholesaler of equipment for the ICT sector, ALSO has developed over the past ten years into a technology provider with products and services for IT solutions, the cloud, the IoT, and other digital platforms.?

We offer the vendors access to more than 110 000 resellers, who can call up a wide range of other customized services in the logistics, finance, and IT services sectors, as well as traditional wholesale services. From developing complex IT landscapes, to providing and updating hardware and software, to taking back, reprocessing, and remarketing IT hardware, ALSO offers all services from a single source in keeping with a circular economy.

3S - our business models


We cultivate the market with three different business models in two marketing channels.

Net sales in the traditional Supply business model include wholesale business with equipment and software for the IT, consumer electronics, and telecommunication sectors. Marketing is mostly transactional, i.e. it takes place through the purchase or sale of products and supplementary services, mostly through our webshop.

In the Solutions business model, ALSO provides project-based support in particular to resellers, mostly small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), on questions of IT architecture and design, rapidly translates requirements into specific configurations, and monitors the status of projects. On top of this, we offer solutions coming from applications in new platforms like the Internet of Things, Cybersecurity or Virtualization.

In the Service area, ALSO acts as a service provider for logistics, sales, and IT services. IT services comprise the “as-a-Service” sales of all technological components that a digital workstation (unique user) requires. All software components are used via the cloud. In addition, services such as financing, maintenance, dimensioning, and replacement are provided for their use. The central hub is the ALSO Cloud Marketplace.

The platform is also offered to partners outside the countries where ALSO operates, and includes platform-as-a-service business.

Digital platform in 90 countries: ALSO and PaaS partners