Wick Hill boss says he was wrong about private equity

Ian Kilpatrick tells CRN sister publication Channelnomics Europe that taking on investment from Rigby Private Equity hasn't forced him to surrender control of the distributor

Wick Hill chairman Ian Kilpatrick says his experiences with new investor Rigby Private Equity has confounded the concerns he had about taking on external financing.

In an interview with CRN sister publication Channelnomics Europe, Kilpatrick also insisted the distributor will retain its focus as it grows across EMEA.

Rigby signed a "significant" deal in July in its first foray into the channel, although the exact amount of funding remains undisclosed. Kilpatrick said the collaborative nature of the endeavour has so far gone without a hitch.

"I had anticipated the process to be challenging, seeing as I have had no boss and answered to nobody for over three decades, but I couldn't have been more wrong. The relationship has been totally comfortable and we're grateful for their expertise," Kilpatrick said.

After residing exclusively in Germany and the UK for more than 25 years, Wick Hill is ready to act on these aspirations, thanks to Rigby's involvement.

"We're not just looking at the Middle East, we are talking about taking on the whole of EMEA. In what particular order I can't yet say, but we're already being very proactive," Kilpatrick stated.

While unable to provide geographical specifics, Kilpatrick emphasised that emerging markets would not be left out or be provided with a "mixed experience" compared with their more well-established counterparts.

"The most important thing for us is to deliver a consistently high-skilled service across the region, making sure that smaller economies are not punished or left short of resources."

Thanks to Wick Hill's selective portfolio, consisting of just 13 vendors at present, Kilpatrick asserted that drawing up region-by-region templates in line with the distributor's ethos was possible.

While he recognised that this would not be easy, the distribution boss claimed that doing so was a fitting reward for vendor partners who had previously compromised on scope when operating within Wick Hill's model.

"Up until now, we sacrificed a broader footprint to remain as true specialists, so partners who worked with us and wanted to break across EMEA had to put those ambitions on hold. Now they can have both," he explained.

Window of opportunity
Aside from the newly available resources, Kilpatrick suggested that the decision to expand now was one based on a window of opportunity in the wider distribution market.

"A lot of our competition has been taken out, normally through the larger players' acquisitions," he said. "But the first thing those giants do is try to find ways to cut costs – training, product specialists, and engineers are slashed.

"As a result, the very expertise they wanted in the first place tends to get lost. For us, this is a bonus – it just leaves a vacuum for us to highlight our own focus as a unique selling point."

However, Kilpatrick admitted that he felt under pressure to diversify Wick Hill's offering as it continued to grow. He said he received between 70 and 100 opportunities a year from those looking to have their solutions taken on, but the risk of dilution kept his approach selective.

Nonetheless, he remained confident that broadliners have a long way to go before they present a genuine threat to VADs.

"We don't compete with the ‘big four' – where they concern themselves with scale and reach, we delve further into nuance, detail and complexity. As such, we bring totally different things to the table."

Wick Hill hopes to release further details about its EMEA timeline before the end of the calendar year.