Messaging security vendor CipherTrust has successfully completed its reseller recruitment drive, and has posted growth of 84 per cent in its fourth quarter.

Over the past year the vendor has grown across the EMEA sector, expanding into new territories and grabbing market share in new verticals such as healthcare, local government finance, retail and utilities. It has also hit its channel recruitment target of between 25 and 30 pro-active resellers (CRN, 5 September).

Oliver Carter, UK channel manager at CipherTrust, said: “We are happy with the partners we have in the UK. It has been a busy year. We are piling a lot of profit back into R&D, and have launched four major products over the past year.

“In the UK we wanted to get between 25 and 30 partners on board, and we have achieved that goal now.”

Carter added that the firm is confident for the future and is seeing particular success in verticals such as NHS and education. He said the firm will not rule out an acquisition if the timing and target company is right, but it is not a high priority.

Carter also stressed that the firm is happy with its single-tier channel strategy.

“Distribution has its benefits. We do work with distributors in other markets, particularly in Europe. However, in the UK we have our headquarters and our direct-touch team, so we can provide all the support that our partners need effectively and easily,” he said.

Chris Durnan, chief executive of VAR Peapod, said: “CipherTrust is a very supportive vendor. We are pleased that it has decided to keep its channel fairly small, which was something we requested from the start.

“Peapod also works with Borderware, which offers a very similar product to CipherTrust. Both vendors are proving to be popular with our customers. Although the marketplace is under a great deal of pressure at the moment, I’m very happy with the relationship.

sara_yirrell@vnu.co.uk