Kelway has taken another step towards its goal of becoming a half-billion pound business with the news today it is to acquire Equanet, the specialist IT solutions brand of Dixons Retail plc.
The deal will extend Kelway’s reach in the midmarket, as well as boosting its credentials in the public sector. It will also expand the London-based VAR’s customer base in the North of England, where Equanet has a strong presence.
Equanet will initially continue to operate as a separate brand within the group and upon completion later this month, Kelway and Equanet will trade on integrated systems.
Kelway founder and CEO, Phil Doye, comments: “By adding the Equanet business to Kelway we are further strengthening our differentiated customer proposition. This acquisition reinforces our growth trajectory, which sees Kelway accelerating towards the landmark of becoming a UK technology company with half a billion pounds of turnover.”
As well as bringing Kelway’s ServiceWorks suite of cloud services to Equanet’s client base, the company is also promising a new software offering created by combining both companies’ Microsoft Large Account Reseller (LAR) accreditations.
Kelway also plans to combine Equanet’s e-commerce platform with its own order management system, ServiceTrack, which the firm says will help customers manage their IT expenditure.
Dan Laws, managing director at Kelway says the benefits of acquiring Equanet are numerous, with “many interesting opportunities” to build upon Kelway’s current proposition.
“Equanet is a business we have known for many years, and the acquisition reinforces our commitment to our supply chain business and its continued value to our clients,” he comments.
“Equanet and Kelway complement each other extremely well and this transaction will enable Equanet to flourish in the specialist B2B market,” adds Sebastian James, chief executive of Dixons Retail, which will continue to operate its PC World Business offering, serving small businesses in its stores across the UK.
Despite an unforgiving economy, Kelway has reported eight consecutive years of double digit revenue growth, with the firm announcing revenues in excess of £350m for the 2011/2012 Financial Year. It also saw top line revenue increase by more than £90m, representing growth of 35 percent.
For the last few years Kelway has continued to spend on IT companies as it builds its business empire. Its last purchase eleven months ago was Ireland’s biggest Microsoft LAR, Business & Scientific Services Ltd (BSS).
Since 2009 the VAR has also snapped up managed services specialist ISC Computers, enterprise IT specialist Repton, managed services and virtualisation specialist Panacea, and software asset management services provider SAM Practice.
