Eccleston to helm new holding company for Wick Hill and Zycko

New Nuvias Group moniker to represent two brands as they expand into new European territories but Wick Hill and Zycko identities will be retained

Paul Eccleston has been named as CEO of a new holding company that will sit behind Rigby Private Equity (RPE)-backed distributors Wick Hill and Zycko.

Rigby Private Equity became a major stakeholder in the two distributors last year and has now created Nuvias Group as an umbrella company for its two investments.

RPE head Eccleston (pictured) will become Nuvias' CEO.

Helge Scherff, Wick Hill's CEO Ian Kilpatrick and managing director of Wick Hill Germany, will join the Nuvias board along with Zycko's CEO David Galton-Fenzi and chief sales officer and Lee Driscoll.

The holding company is also implementing a restructure divided into three regions: the Northern region, comprising the UK, Nordics and Benelux; the Central region, consisting of DACH and central Europe; and the Southern region, pulling together France, Iberia, Italy and the Mediterranean.

Nuvias has appointed regional directors responsible for overall operations in each territory. Driscoll will head up the Northern region, Scherff will take responsibility for the Central region and Galton-Fenzi will temporarily lead the Southern business.

According to Galton-Fenzi, the search for a permanent southern European director is already under way, and will be concluded by the end of this year.

Group CEO Eccleston said: "Day-to-day operations of both companies stay exactly the same... We are creating a single board that looks at the strategy and direction of both combined organisations, but beyond that it is business as usual."

According to Wick Hill's Kilpatrick, both VADs will continue operating separately and there will be no merging of offices and teams between the two firms.

"If you look at the map and see where Zycko are and where we are, we are more than a few miles apart and we both have very high staff skills and have the ability - it is not a possibility to merge the two together," he said.

"In the situation where we are at the moment, this has never been an integration play. It has been just a week past the (40th) anniversary of Wick Hill and during that time we have added 12 new staff. Currently we are out there looking to hire and continue to grow. The opportunity and challenge is to grow the staff we have, not merge them together."

According to Eccleston, however, future acquisitions will be made on behalf of the holding company Nuvias. The CEO also said that opening in new territories will also be undertaken as a group brand and not individually.

Kilpatrick maintains that there is "very low" customer crossover between Wick Hill and Zycko.

Eccleston said the name "Nuvias," which, according to the CEO closely resembles a Latin word meaning "new roots," was an apt encapsulation of the brand's future ambitions.

"When we are building an EMEA business we need to form a name that will work in all languages. It needs to be reasonably easy to pronounce but still be technological and aspirational. It creates some clarity for stakeholders and the direction we are moving. It clearly indicates that we are building this pan-EMEA specialised distribution business under a single brand," he said.

Eccleston insists that there will be acquisitions in the future alongside plans to boost Nuvias' geographical reach.

RPE snapped up stakes in Wick Hill and Zycko in 2015. Nuvias now claims to serve 40 vendors and 5,000 resellers in 13 countries with a turnover of $300m (€269.6m).