‘Our ambition is to become our partners’ best partner’: Exertis CEO on AURELIUS acquisition

Tim Griffin talks Exertis’ new owner, focus on infotech, and investment strategy

Yesterday, UK-based distributor Exertis announced its acquisition by private equity investor AURELIUS in a move aimed to support its growth and that of its partners.

CEO Tim Griffin sat down with CRN to discuss what this new chapter means for Exertis and its partners, as well across the UK and different sectors.

He notes how AURELIUS have invested in other distribution assets before with more than 300 acquisitions globally and are similar to former owners DCC around their diversity of investments and structure.

“They have an incredible access to assets that will enable us to move faster,” Griffin says.

“They have capabilities in a whole host of areas that will really accelerate our growth agenda.”

While Griffin praises DCC as a fantastic owner, he believes AURELIUS is a better fit for the infotech set of assets within its technology portfolio.

This buyout intends to make Exertis its “partners’ best partner”, according to Griffin, and provide them with a whole raft of services, both upstream for vendors and downstream for resellers and retailers, with the goal to improve market access, leverage, and simplicity within their supply chain operations.

Exertis, which already generates £2bn in annual revenue, is looking for “substantial growth” under this new ownership.

“We put a three-year plan together as part of the sales process,” explains Griffin.

“It’s double-digit in the way we expect it to compound over the next few years.”

Global footprint and retained businesses

While the distie leader previously told CRN he was looking for a buyer that could propel its international growth - the North American JAM and Almo businesses, as well as its AV and infrastructure units in Europe with Connect - Azenn, Amacom, AV DACH, AV Italy, Exertis Nordics and AV Spain, will remain part of DCC.

“Our tech portfolio was in 22 countries,” says Griffin.

“It was incredibly diverse across those three buckets; infotech (technology in the workplace), protech (focused on datacentre and the back office), and lifetech (the technology you see at home).

“Within the assets that we have agreed to sell to AURELIUS, you have Ztorm, which is a Swedish-based gaming software distribution company and has strong ties with our retail footprint in the UK.

“And then you also have our supply chain services business, which has a number of entities around the world that enable us to do global business, but there are physical hubs both in China and in Poland that enable us to manage our customers’ supply chains across those territories as well.

“Those become the centre of gravity that we will leverage to grow now.”

In the short term, he sees the firm’s growth agenda around the UK in Ireland.

Some businesses, such as Exertis Enterprise and Cloud in the UK, also remained with DCC as they were seen as being part of the protech space, rather than infotech.

Focus areas, acquisitions, and leadership changes

“Within the Infotech portfolio, our strength lies in being a specialist,” the leader tells CRN.

“[IT solutions, AV, components, print, and mobile] in terms of product areas are absolutely where we think we are number one or number two in the marketplace, and we’re aiming to be number one in all of them.”

To fuel these ambitions, Griffin doesn’t intend to make any changes to his leadership team, which is “part of what AURELIUS are buying into.”

The company remains open to welcoming new executives if successful in its acquisition journey, as it “always brings opportunity and change.”

While the company’s acquisitive focus is on the UK, Ireland, supply chain, and Ztorm, Griffin tells CRN he would “never say never” about entering new geographical areas that could add value to customers.