Widget finds Dutch courage with NOW-Mobile buy

Acquisition of Eindhoven-based firm designed to create route into big Dutch retailers such as Cool Blue

UK distributor Widget has snapped up a Dutch counterpart to help it target the Netherlands' top retailers.

The consumer electronics distributor has bought a majority stake in NOW-Mobile BV, which it will use as a platform to service the Benelux markets with its current vendors such as Orbitsound, Fitbit and Sphero.

NOW-Mobile BV founders Ivo and Vincent Philipsome will stay on in an advisory capacity but the business will be managed by Widget UK sales director Bart Hoorntje.

Talking to ChannelWeb, Widget chairman Mark Needham (pictured) said NOW-Mobile had been Widget's client for the past three years.

"They are a route to market for the products we carry," he said.

"We have taken them for their customer book as they have established contracts with a number of Dutch retailers, including Cool Blue, which is the biggest e-tailer over there."

Needham said Widget is on course to turn over £18m for its current financial year, with about five per cent coming from overseas.

NOW-Mobile, which had only two staff, cut its teeth as a Palm handheld computer distributor before Palm was acquired by HP. The deal includes a small office in Eindhoven but no warehouse, Needham said.

"Our policy is to focus on a small number of vendors – a maximum of 12," he said. "We then try to take them to as wide a group of customers as possible and this will take us to a new group of retailers."