Logicalis aims for top billing
VAR looks to build presence after buying HP reseller
VAR Logicalis Group is aiming to double its turnover within the next two years, which would put it on a par with channel giant Computacenter and ahead of SCC and Morse.
The firm, which is planning most of its growth through acquisition, last week bought Hewlett-Packard (HP) reseller Hawke Systems for an undisclosed sum.
Ian Cook, chief executive at Logicalis, told CRN the move will give the group a foothold in both the HP camp and the storage arena.
“This will help us balance the UK business. We have to ensure that we are positioned in the right market and do not have everything skewed towards IBM,” he said.
Logicalis also bought IBM VAR Notability in March. “We now have HP, IBM, BT and Cisco as our major vendor partners. We have also gained a real storage practice in Hawke, and will gain relationships with work Appliance, EMC, Veritas and others,” Cook said.
Hawke will become part of Logicalis Computing Solutions, a division formed after the purchase of Notability. The Logicalis Group also includes Logicalis Network Solutions, created after the acquisitions of Log-ical Networks and Satelcom last year.
Cook said the firm will continue on its VAR shopping spree until it has achieved the right growth. “I want this company to be twice the size it is now within the next two years,” he said.
The Hawke buy brings Logicalis’ UK turnover to about £100m. Cook revealed the VAR is planning another acquisition in September.
Alastair Edwards, senior analyst at Canalys, said this type of consolidation is set to continue. “The smaller players are finding it harder because it is all about scale. This brings its own problems, as the bigger the VARs get and the further into services they go, the more likely they are to compete with their own vendors,” he said.