‘This is a massive opportunity for the channel’: Simon Williams on Trustmarque and Ultima
The CEO tells CRN how the merger will impact the company's relationship with partners, its international presence, and leadership teams
Trustmarque and Ultima Business Solutions have agreed on their intention to merge.
In an interview with CRN, Simon Williams, Trustmarque CEO and new CEO of the combined business, explains what led to the merger.
“We’ve been looking for a while, so we started a conversation [with Ultima] and realised that our offering complemented each other’s.
“We thought this would a massive opportunity for our teams, as with scale, you get bigger opportunities, bigger growth, as well as bigger development opportunities for our clients.”
He adds that Trustmarque has “very strong” Microsoft, networking, Cisco, Aruba, Juniper, and cyber practices which will fit perfectly with Ultima’s Microsoft, HPE, and Citrix capabilities.
“We've got some brilliant IP, Ultima has got some brilliant IP, and so bringing those together brings more opportunities from a channel perspective to all vendors and partners in the market.”
Williams points out that the merger is not about being the largest, but about being the most complete service provider for its clients. However, the businesses are aiming to reach £1bn in GII post-merger.
Trustmarque’s UK revenue for its most recent full year was £498m. Ultima delivered £73m.
“On the Trustmarque side, most of our services are delivered as projects.
“On the Ultima side, most of their services are managed.
“Both sides get a real opportunity to take more to their clients.”
The joint venture will employ over 1,000 employees and more than 3,000 customers across both the private and public sectors, including the health sector, as well as central and regional government, where Trustmarque is already involved.
“Together, we have enough credibility, enough weight to be strong in the financial services market, the legal market, the energy, and the utilities markets,” he adds.
The merger will also allow the organisations to combine their offering, as Trustmarque is very public sector focused while Ultima has got a stronger presence in the public sector.
“Together, we become 50 per cent corporate, 50 per cent public sector.”
Vendor and distribution relationships
The combined entity will count Microsoft, Cisco, IBM, Hitachi Vantara, HP, Palo Alto, and Citrix as its top strategic vendors.
Williams tells CRN that the new scale and changes brought by this merger will also provide further opportunities for distributors.
“The technology landscape is all about ecosystem, and the people who succeed are the people who play effectively and play well within it.
“I want to personally be involved in the engagement with the distributors and talk about how we can further improve our relationships.
“We've got a pretty good spread across them at the moment, and is that a good thing? Is that not a good thing? Should we be diversified? Should we put all our eggs in one basket? I think there's a there are opportunities to look at what the different benefits are.”
A stronger global footprint
The firm will now operate across various locations in the UK, including York, London, Glasgow, and Reading, but also abroad.
Just After Midnight, the business acquired by Ultima in 2021, already has a presence in Dubai, Singapore, and the US.
Trustmarque is also involved in Uncle Sam’s country through the buyout of Livingstone in 2023.
In addition to the UK and the US, the eighth largest company on CRN’s Top VARs list has operations in continental Europe, even though it does not have a physical office there.
The already wide footprint of both partners makes global expansion “not a number one priority, but it's certainly something that we'll be looking into,” explains the CEO.
People moves and brand reshape
In addition to Willians leading the combined organisation, Jamie Beaumont, CFO at Ultima, will keep his title following the unification.
Beyond these two changes, the firm will be made up of a combination of the old leadership teams, Williams tells CRN.
“We’ve got some great people in the business, and it's about building on that.”
Trustmarque and Ultima will continue to operate as separate businesses until completion, which is expected to be within the next few weeks.
The CEO also teases a rebrand in early 2026 but explains that the companies are not looking to do it quickly.
“Rebranding is an important thing for the market.
“We want to make sure we've got the right brand for our teams and the right brand for the market.
“We can’t rush it and make a mistake.”
The proposed merger will continue to be supported by the private equity firms One Equity Partners and Apse Capital.