How the UK channel's new £400m player will operate

In the wake of Bytes UK's acquisition of Phoenix Software, its expanded structure has been detailed to CRN by its group managing director

Expansion into the north and an increased public sector push were behind Bytes UK's acquisition of Microsoft reseller Phoenix Software, according to Bytes' group managing director.

For the year to October 31 2016, Phoenix had sales of £118.4m, up from £114.6m a year earlier. The deal with Bytes UK now creates a £400 million a year-plus operation.

"We have been looking for an acquisition for quite some time in order to bolster the scale of our operation and the profitability of the UK group," Neil Murphy, group managing director of Bytes UK told CRN.

"Phoenix really suited our aspirations. It is a very similar business to ours and we are very familiar to the market they operate in. They also have a very similar culture, which is very people-centric. They have fantastic management, alongside a brilliant team.

"We are going to operate a federated business model, with a holding company at the top and under that we have Bytes Software Services, Bytes Security Partnerships and now we'll have Phoenix Software - a subsidiary of the Bytes Technology Group."

Murphy said resources between all three companies will be leveraged to satisfy customer requirements; this includes having a strengthened presence in the north of the UK.

"Phoenix have operated in the north for 27 years. We have small sales offices in York and Manchester. Our intention is to move our York office to the Phoenix offices over the next four months," he said.

Murphy said Phoenix is also strong in the public sector, while Bytes is strong in the corporate sector.

"Our combined sales into the public sector will be quite significant and we want to continue to provide solutions and services into that [public sector] space. We also want to widen-out the services capability we have to those existing customers and target new customers," added Murphy.