Accumuli chief: NCC takeover is perfect outcome

Gavin Lyons explains how the firms have worked together on various projects for years, and that the acquisition made sense for both sides

Accumuli CEO Gavin Lyons is feeling bullish for the future after his firm was taken over by Manchester-based giant NCC earlier this year.

First announced in March, the cash and share deal valued Accumuli at around £55m. The AIM-listed security VAR posted a trading update recently revealing revenues would stand at around £27m, up from £16.6m in the last financial year.

The firm attributed its growth to increased managed services revenue and its latest acquisition of VAR Armstrong Adams putting in a solid performance.

Lyons (pictured) is no stranger to mergers and acquisition, having presided over four since he took the Accumuli reins in 2012, plus the disposal of its Webscreen business to Juniper, but he said the deal was positive for the firm and its customers.

“We have been working together [with NCC] for a number of years. NCC would talk to customers and they came to us to partner on different aspects of bids. It made sense for them to acquire us and the two businesses fit together really well,” he explained.

“It gives us greater scale and means we are big enough to compete in the market, but small enough to still be agile, and that means a great deal to customers,” he said, adding that he works with some “great people” at Accumuli.

Lyons explained that his role would remain the same and that he would report into NCC Group’s chief executive Rob Cotton.

The full interview with Gavin Lyons will be published in the 11 May issue of CRN.

Separately CRN understands that NCC is gearing up to release more details on how it will integrate Accumuli as part of a ‘controlled integration’ strategy.