Maindec guns for big public deals after CSA Waverley buy

Senior managers from both sides talk us through this week's £40m VAR merger, with all staff to be kept on for organic growth push

CSA Waverley and Maindec have stressed the importance of their financial stability as the newly combined duo targets more success with top public-sector deals.

Support services provider Maindec bought HP infrastructure specialist Waverley this week, creating a £40m channel player. Maindec finance director Peter Darraugh told ChannelWeb "there are a number of natural synergies" between the two firms.

"We have a number of joint clients and the staff know each other; we have a very similar philosophy, and complementary skills," he added. "Maindec is very much in services but moving towards doing solutions, while Waverley does solutions and a bit of services.

"This deal gives each organisation access to a great deal of specialism. Maindec has far more IT staff; Waverley has access to a greater pool of resources on the HP side. We have now more than trebled the number of HP staff in the business."

The two firms are already based at the same headquarters in Buckinghamshire, and all six other offices across the UK are to remain open, with all staff to be kept on. All six senior managers will remain on board, including Boyle, Timms and Darraugh, alongside Waverley sales chief Steve Nicholls and technical director Mark Hedge and operations chief Paul Timms from Maindec.

Darraugh outlined that Maindec is not laden with any debt either prior to or following the deal. He claimed that sensible levels of organic growth are the priority for the coming years.

"There is certainly scope for not just consolidating sales, but growing them. Certainly £50m is a sensible near-term goal for us," he added.

CSA Waverley has enjoyed stellar growth in the past couple of years, with sales shooting up from £9m in 2010 to a pro rata £25m in 2011. Boyle explained that his firm has benefited from gaining a place on the government's £6bn CITHS framework.

"We are probably the smallest company on there, but we sit at number three or four [in terms of spend]," he said. "We have really maximised that opportunity, but now that we have extra resources, we can bid for more deals."

Darraugh added: "There are a couple of deals we are now looking at. There is one in particular where, two weeks ago, we were excluded from bidding. But now we have all the skills and resources to not just bid for it, but to win it."

Between them, the two companies have been operating for a combined total of 60 years. Maindec operations director Paul Timms stressed the importance of stability for customers.

"Our focus has always been on providing what companies want and we are very successful in doing that," he said. "We have both been around for a number of decades, have worked very hard and are financially stable. That cannot be understated, in light of some other stories in the channel at the moment."