Acquisition thrusts EET into spare parts pole position

Purchase of Europarts boosts spare parts distributor's turnover to €200m

EET Group claims it has become the dominant spare parts distributor in Europe followings its acquisition of €50m (£40m)-turnover rival Europarts.

Paris-based HP and Lexmark spare parts distributor Europarts has 20,000 buying customers, presence in 13 countries and more than 150 staff.

The acquisition transforms Denmark-based EET into a €200m-turnover outfit with presence in 22 countries, more than 400 employees, 55,000 buying customers and one million shipments.

Other brands Europarts carries include Canon, Epson, Toshiba, Acer, IBM, Xerox, Fujitsu Siemens, Ricoh, Olivetti and Samsung.

EET claims it is now the world's largest spare parts distributor.

EET group chief executive John Thomas said: "I am very excited and proud of this acquisition, which is the largest of the 15 acquisitions we have made in the past 10 years. This acquisition manifests our strategy to grow our business outside the Nordics and we expect countries such as France, Italy, Spain and the UK to be some of the largest entities within the EET Group, already within the first year."

The largest entities of Europarts will be integrated into EET before July, with all its operations set to be folded in by the end of September, Thomas added.

"We will in the coming days, weeks and month focus on making the integration as professional and successful as possible for all the employees and our customers," he said.