New solutions in the distribution portfolio, further growth in market share, and geographical expansion – this is the shortest summary of CLICO Group’s 2024 activities. When summing up 2024, Grzegorz Rospond, CLICO Group CEO, emphasised: «For us, this was another year of dynamic growth, strengthening of partnerships, and further market expansion, in line with our adopted and successfully pursued strategy».

Following its strategic development lines, CLICO continued its dynamic expansion into the CEE and CIS markets, and was consistently pursuing its ambition to provide challenging and unique solutions by focusing on three areas: security, network, and management.

2024 market expansion

At the start of 2024, CLICO opened a new branch in Ukraine thereby partnering up with experienced IT specialists with established presence on the local market. Maxim Rakosiy, CLICO Ukraine Country Manager summarises the past year as follows:

«CLICO’s expansion does not just amount to geographic development, but it also means a boost to the company’s importance in the difficult and demanding market. Challenges? Regional stability and availability of qualified specialists. We need to be faster and offer better skills than competitors. Many experts have left Ukraine, while others are involved in the war, making it difficult to build a team. Notwithstanding this, we have succeeded in increasing our market share».

The Ukrainian team have had their branch fully integrated into the company's ecosystem, have successfully undertaken their marketing activities, and have established collaboration with the key business units. As had been announced, the year 2024 also saw an expansion of the supplier portfolio and enhanced presence in new markets, and specifically, Central Asian countries.

«We have opened an office in Kazakhstan, staffed with two people for start – Sales Director and Engineer. Our Kazakh colleagues take advantage of full technical support from both the Ukrainian and central teams. Tapping into the countries’ huge potential, we will be able to increase our turnover many times in the next 5 years», Maxim Rakosiy adds.

The Kazakhstan branch is headed by Almas Abish, who has been in the IT industry for more than 12 years.

As Almas Abish, Country Manager at CLICO Kazakhstan, points out, «My priority is to create a strong team and build CLICO’s position as the best distributor of IT solutions in the region. We plan to step up sales and expand our portfolio consistently, while investing in employee development. Challenges? The market specificities might be challenging – every Central Asian country requires an individual approach. It is also crucial to ensure effective cooperation with the public sector, where the high rotation of decision-makers requires patience and a long-term strategy».

2024 also marked the start of CLICO’s operations in Greece. In Q1 2024, Alexander Stamenov, who was holding the position of Country Manager in Bulgaria, was also appointed Country Manager for the Greek market. The position of CLICO Greece Sales Director was entrusted to Manos Thermos, who has more than 20 years of hands-on experience in the Greek IT market, particularly in the area of cyber security.

«Greece is a country with a wide variety of distributors, from license resellers to specialised VADs and international players. And yet, despite the competitive landscape, CLICO has the unique advantage of it being a highly specialised value-added distributor. Suppliers have seen dynamic growth, partners are satisfied with new business, and customers are happy when their needs are satisfied quickly and accurately. We add value to the products in our distribution portfolio, which makes us very happy», concludes Manos Thermos, Sales Director for Greece & Cyprus.

2024 performance

Despite a rapidly changing business environment and numerous challenges, the CLICO Group saw significant revenue growth of 21% relative to 2023. The sales revenues totalled $272 million.

«We largely owe our success, which we achieved both in Poland and in many CEE and Central Asia countries, to CLICO’s proactive strategy. We continuously analyse and anticipate customer needs in order to be ahead of anyone else in marketing innovative cyber security solutions, while providing top-level technical support delivered by our experienced experts», says Grzegorz Rospond, CEO of CLICO Group.

2025 prospects

CLICO has announced ambitious plans for 2025, which include further geographic expansion, development of proprietary services and of tools supporting sales of state-of-the-arts cyber security solutions. In the face of growing threats in the digital world, the company is focused on innovation and adaptation so as to be able to cater for the needs of partners and customers globally.

As Grzegorz Rospond says: «We are optimistic about this year. Our priority will be to enhance our presence in the new markets, fine-tune our service offerings, and develop instruments to support the sale of cutting-edge cyber security solutions. We also plan to further our cloud computing competencies so as to respond even more effectively to customers’ needs and support them in building secure IT environments. In addition, we will continue our research under the Cyber Soldier Project, by focusing on analysing actual cyber-attacks, that is by describing and testing them, as well as presenting effective countermeasures based on the best solutions. We want to provide expertise and practical tools to help organisations identify threats, minimise risks, and respond to incidents quickly and effectively».

«However, our mission goes far beyond mere sales. We are committed to improving cyber security on a nationwide scale in every country where we are present, raising awareness of cyber threats and supporting initiatives to strengthen safeguards in the private and public sectors. We believe that our efforts contribute to building a more resilient and informed digital society, in which the security of data and IT infrastructure becomes a priority for all citizens», adds Grzegorz Rospond, CEO at CLICO Group.