US reseller PCM opens for business in the UK

MD Donavan Hutchinson refuses to rule out possibility of acquisitions as PCM gears up for formal UK opening next week

PCM has become the latest US reseller to touch down in the UK, and plans to employ 90 staff in the country by the end of the year.

The technology solutions provider, which turned over $2.25bn last year and has 4,000 staff, will formally open its UK subsidiary next Tuesday, 2 May.

According to market sources, the NASDAQ-listed firm has already taken on in the region of 40 staff in the UK, which will also serve as a hub for the rest of Europe. It is currently renting two Regus offices in the north and south of England, in Sheffield and near the M25, respectively.

The UK operation is being led by Donavan Hutchinson, who has held global roles at competitors including CDW and Insight, as well as CCS Media.

PCM is the latest in a growing line of US resellers to enter the UK in recent years, but is the only one to do so organically in one big bang. CDW and Zones acquired their way into the market, while US-based Cisco partner World Wide Technology has built a local presence organically, but over a number of years.

In contrast, PCM says it is on course to have around 90 UK staff by the end of 2017. Its vendor partners include Adobe, Apple, Cisco, Dell, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, HP Inc, Lenovo, Microsoft, Oracle, Samsung, Symantec.

In a statement, PCM CEO Frank Khulusi described the launch as a "major milestone" for the firm, which was founded in 1987.

"Many of our North American customers are increasingly global with needs for us to deliver to their European operations cutting-edge IT solutions with the same high level of service they have grown accustomed to from us in North America," he said. "We also believe that there are significant potential opportunities for customers based in the UK and across the European Union."

Talking to CRN, Hutchinson said the immediate priority is to get the UK up to speed, but said acquisitions are a possibility down the line.

"Our focus right now is ensuring that our UK set up goes as smooth as possible and although we have aspirations in the market to grow further, my primary objective is to get the UK up and running and provide a high level of customer satisfaction before we head into other markets," he said.

"However we have not ruled out any future strategic investments/acquisitions."

PCM has set up a UK subsidiary, PCM Technology Solutions UK, Ltd, and expects to begin sales operations this quarter.

Despite the big bang approach to its launch, Hutchinson claimed PCM has the infrastructure, systems and vendor accreditations in place to begin trading.

"Due to PCM's continued success as seen in the USA market and a robust business plan for our international expansion our vendors and partners have worked closely with us and invested in providing necessary accreditations that will allow us to provide a high level of service to our clients," he said. "Our primary focus at this point is to lay a solid foundation for servicing existing and new clients to include having well defined processes and systems in place to support the needs of those clients when we officially start to transact with them."