Hardis Group achieved revenue of €132.7 million in 2021, up 9.8% on 2020. In 2022, the company is aiming to accelerate its organic and external growth in France and worldwide as it targets revenue of €150 million for the year. It will work to consolidate its position in three key growth areas in the French and European markets: supply chain, cloud, and commerce.
Grenoble, April 5, 2022 – Hardis Group, a consulting and IT services company, Salesforce integrator, and independent logistics software vendor, announces its results for 2021 and unveils its ambitions for 2022. Consolidated group revenue stood at €132.7 million, up 9.8% on 2020. Profit was 24% higher than in 2019, the most recent comparable year. In order to achieve its €150 million revenue target for 2022, Hardis Group has launched a recruitment drive to hire 340 new employees and will continue growing its business outside France.
2021: A strong year for software sales and integration, and on international markets
Key highlights for the financial year to December 31, 2021 include:
- An almost 34% increase in license sales, driven in particular by growth in indirect sales and the expansion of Reflex, Hardis Group’s logistics software suite, outside France. The company opened a new office in Poland, adding to recent openings in the Netherlands and Spain, in order to serve the Central European market. “Our European offices recorded an almost 40% jump in revenue to €4.7 million,” said Yann Coutaz, Managing Director of Hardis Group.
- A significant upswing in Hardis Group’s Salesforce integration business, with growth of 45%. “Notably, 47% of the consultants working on these projects are women, compared with a group-wide figure of 29%,” said Nicolas Odet, President of Hardis Group.
- Growth in recurring contracts for Hardis Group’s Cloud Operations department. In 2021, the company invested heavily in employee training and certification programs for the GCP and Azure public clouds.
- An acceleration in Hardis Group’s business and technology application integration activities. For instance, the group became the leading partner (by revenue) for Workplace from Meta in Europe, carrying out a large number of projects for clients in the retail and non-profit sectors.
Also in 2021, Hardis Group’s Business Consulting department strengthened its management, both at senior level and across its offices in Grenoble, Lyon, and Paris. Going forward, the unit will focus on its strategy of supporting and accelerating the digital transformation of SMEs and mid-sized companies, especially in the retail, manufacturing, and service industries.
Highlights of 2021
- January 2021: Hardis Group set up a new business unit dedicated to accelerating business and digital transformation in the insurance, complementary health insurance, banking, and financial services sector.
- April 2021: Hardis Group opened a new office in Poland, serving the Central European market, as part of its expansion strategy for Reflex (logistics execution applications).
- September 2021: Hardis Group and Cellenza created Squadra, a new joint venture to offer managed services (run) and continuous innovation for the various components of the Microsoft Azure cloud platform.
2022: Ambitious plans, especially outside France
In 2022, Hardis Group is aiming to surpass €150 million in revenue and bolster its expertise in three key growth areas: supply chain, cloud, and commerce. “Our sights are set on both organic and external growth,” said Nicolas Odet. “We're also planning to continue growing our business outside France.”
More specifically, Hardis Group will pursue its strategy by:
- Expanding into new geographies, including opening new offices in Europe, with a particular focus on its logistics software vendor business. “In practice, we will step up our R&D efforts for Reflex, expand our indirect sales operations, and continue supporting our clients with their multi-country deployments,” said Coutaz.
- Stepping up its focus on public cloud environments, with an end-to-end service combining consulting, integration, and run, especially for mid-market firms.
- Rapidly growing its application integration activities for commerce (Salesforce, Openbravo), insurance and complementary health insurance firms (dedicated software packages), data processing (Talend), and internal communication (Workplace from Meta). Hardis Group has particularly ambitious plans for its Salesforce business, which is forecast to grow by 35%. “Our recent acquisition of Carrenet, a Paris-based Salesforce integrator, has pushed us from tenth to fourth position among the leading Salesforce integrators in France,” said Odet.
In order to achieve these objectives, Hardis Group, which employed 1,235 people at end-2021, has unveiled an ambitious recruitment drive for 2022: the group will hire 340 new employees across its sites in France and abroad, including doubling its headcount outside France.
In 2022, Hardis Group will also bolster its CSR strategy, focusing on three areas in particular: reducing the environmental footprint of its business (and, to a certain extent, of its clients’ businesses), championing diversity and equal opportunities (hiring more women, people with disabilities, etc.), and using education to drive social inclusion (partnerships with coding school 42 Lyon and non-profit DesCodeuses).
Highlights of 2022 (up to the end of March)
- January 2022: Hardis Group pursued its international growth strategy by signing a partnership deal with A2B Solutions, which offers consulting and integration services for the Reflex software suite in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, and Iceland.
- January 2022: Hardis Group became the principal sponsor of coding school 42 Lyon Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.
- February 2022: Hardis Group announced plans to hire 340 new employees in 2022, with 150 vacancies based in Grenoble, 70 in Lyon, 55 in Paris, 15 in Nantes, 10 in Lille, and 10 in Bordeaux. Some 140 employees will join group’s Reflex software unit, including many working in R&D roles.
- March 2022: Hardis Group acquired a majority stake in Carrenet, a Paris-based Salesforce integrator.