Security VAD e92plus plots European expansion following first acquisition

Distributor snaps up Surrey-based Securicom to kick start growth period that will see it move into mainland Europe and target £100m revenue

E92plus has acquired security distributor Securicom and set its sights on a European expansion as it targets £100m revenue.

The distributor, which carries the likes of Trend Micro and Forcepoint, expects to turn over £40m in its current financial year, but has laid out aggressive growth plans which will see it make multiple acquisitions and aim to hit £100m in sales by 2020.

Securicom, the first acquisition in the 28-year-old distributor's history, carries emerging vendors including Aqua Security and will act as the emerging technology division of e92plus - according to managing director Mukesh Gupta (pictured).

"They have good emerging technology and they've made the right bets on those vendors," he said. "Those technologies are going to grow and that was a key reason for our decision.

"It will run as a standalone business but really it will act as an incubation arm of e92plus and look at new products, and get them ready for mainstream distribution. We're slightly ahead in the whole cycle, so we can take on vendors, but it takes them longer to get on board with us.

"Securicom are a bit more agile than us and so they're able to take these vendors on very fast and get them to market quicker."

After completing the Securicom takeover, Gupta is now hunting further acquisition targets in Europe, with one aim being to take some of the vendors it carries in the UK into the European market.

The first acquisition has been financed by e92plus itself, but Gupta said that agreements are in place with third-parties to fund potentially larger acquisitions, with European equivalents of e92plus likely to be the targets.

Gupta said the decision to expand now comes from a need for vendors to work with dedicated security specialists, with larger distributors often not capable of giving newer vendors the time and resources needed to crack the market.

Meanwhile the UK security distribution space has seen a number of newcomers over the recent years - the likes of Ignition, Distology and Progress - as well as a number of mergers and acquisitions.

"Cybersecurity is a hot topic and therefore there are a lot more vendors coming into the marketplace and they need good companies to take their products on board," Gupta said.

"The larger organisations that have been around for a long time need vendors that are doing a certain amount of revenue straightaway, so there becomes space for people like Securicom because they can help emerging vendors that can't get into the large distributors' portfolios.

"There are a handful of new distributors that have emerged [but] we're probably the last of the independents left in our space. I can't think of anybody in the same space as us that has not been acquired by someone else and is now part of a bigger organisation.

"For us I think we're in a unique position and that's partly where it's come from. We've realised this and think that now is the right time to capitalise on it."