Azlan and SDG will merge by autumn

New boss Paul Eccleston reveals until then the two brands will operate as separate entities

Azlan and SDG will continue to operate as separate brands until the autumn, the firms’ joint boss has revealed.

Paul Eccleston (pictured), who joined Computer 2000 last year after the firm’s parent company Tech Data acquired SDG for £225m and is in charge of both brands, explained at the firm’s Vendor Summit how its next move was to become one joint brand this year – TDAzlan.

“[The merger of Azlan and SDG] has created the largest value added distributor in EMEA and the largest in the UK,” Eccleston – who was the EMEA boss of SDG – said. “In the UK that has expanded the portfolio of the value business and the only area there was any overlap was with HP. But HP needed to consolidate its UK distributors anyway, so we have done it for them. It really was one of the most synergistic acquisitions we have ever seen.”

He added the acquisition of SDG and its businesses across the UK, France and Netherlands added €1.9bn in revenue to Tech Data's top line, and stressed that the volume business has always been just as important to SDG as the value business.

“This merger increases the ability of the [joint] organisation to deliver full solutions and also to leverage the reach of Tech Data group and increase the depth into customers,” he said. “It really is a new opportunity for both SDG and Azlan/Computer 2000 customers. And it means we are going to grow profit.”

Earlier in his keynote, Computer 2000 UK boss Peter Hubbard had explained how TDAzlan fitted into the firm’s ‘collection of specialists’ setup – with Azlan accounting for 35 per cent of business compared with the Computer 2000 business’ 40 per cent.

“The acquisition brought on board 300 new staff into the Tech Data family and a highly skilled sales and product portfolio that we have wanted to bring on board for many years. Also as a result of the acquisition we have a multi-site organisation in the UK with sites in Basingstoke, Langley, Warrington and Birmingham,” said Hubbard.

Eccleston added how the combined firm was aiming for 15 per cent growth and stood at around a £740m/£750m run rate.

“We can leverage the solution capability through our 2100 customers, 56 vendor partners and more than 250 specialist staff. We will enable resellers to sell more, sell faster and more profitably,” he added.

Eccleston said that by 1 May, vendors would start to see a slightly different brand structure as the two firms merged fully into the TDAzlan brand with four sub brands emerging – TDAzlan ETC, TDAzlan ISI, TDAzlan SDG and TDAzlan IQSys.

“But until the Autumn, we will continue to run as separate entities,” he said. “However we will continue to plan so the integration is seamless.”