Growth-hungry Kelway stays true to its roots

Kelway has pledged not to forget its product roots as it looks to broaden its service offering following the completion of its integration of Repton and Panacea.

The VAR, which plans to hit a turnover of £250m within three years, recently rebranded itself under the ‘Beyond Technology’ strapline, and has hinted at further acquisitions.

Dan Laws, the recently appointed managing director of Kelway, said his firm is keen to maintain its volume emphasis, but also to build its services capabilities.

“As we grow the business, we will continue to do so empathetically to what made us successful in the first place,” he said. “We will not forget where we came from and will still offer quality of service and flexibility around product, as well as increasing services.”

Laws said Kelway will look to grow its sales teams next year, and also boost its technical teams as it continues to push for Cisco Gold status, and add to its networking, virtualisation and datacentre capabilities.

Phil Doye, chief executive of Kelway, said a tight management structure, coupled with the hybrid product and services focus, will help the VAR to further succeed.

“We have recruited top management from the outside with large organisation experience,” he said. “Other firms that have a buy-and-build strategy have probably persisted too long with individual brands and management teams.

“We will continue to look at areas where we are currently less strong. There are a smaller number of targets to choose from now, but we will start looking again.”

Alastair Edwards, senior analyst at Canalys, said Kelway had the right idea.

“Kelway has made some really smart moves and has invested to bulk up its solution expertise within the business to support its hardware,” he said.