CMS Distribution in talks with next acquisition target

Distributor says it is working on its next purchase as it prepares to plant its flag in the Netherlands

CMS Distribution is closing in on its next acquisition, its founder revealed, as he confirmed that the distributor will catapult its brand into the Netherlands at the end of this month.

The storage and peripherals specialist is gunning for 2016 revenues of £300m following its purchase of consumer electronics distributor Widget in May.

Through Widget, CMS also took control of NOW-Mobile, a Dutch wearables specialist Widget acquired in 2012.

CMS founder and managing director Frank Salmon revealed to CRN that Eindhoven-based NOW-Mobile will be rebranded under the CMS Distribution banner at the end of October.

"This will be our first point-of-presence in mainland Europe and going forward it will serve as our main European base from a logistics perspective," he explained.

CMS expects to begin rolling out some of its key vendors to Benelux from Q1, Salmon (pictured) added.

"We want to become the number-one VAD for technology across Europe," he said. "About 90 per cent of our sales are from the UK and Ireland and currently 10 per cent are into Europe. This next step is creating the launchpad for business expansion into mainland Europe."

The last accounts for CMS' parent, Storit Limited, show revenue rising from £173.6m to £178.2m and net profit swelling from £2.57m to £3.51m in calendar 2015, year on year.

CMS has made three acquisitions - CCI, Interactive Ideas and Widget - in fairly quick succession and Salmon said further purchases will be sought.

"We've done three acquisitions to date; they've been very successful and we'll continue to look at acquisitions," he said. "We are working on an acquisition at the moment but this wouldn't be the appropriate time to comment on who that is, but we would expect to make an acquisition each year."

A decision has yet to be taken on when Widget's Swedish business, Newgen, will be rebranded, Salmon said.