'We're committed to investing and developing our presence in the cybersecurity sector': Northamber enters Europe with Irish cybersecurity VAD acquisition

The deal has been valued at €900,000, €600,000 of which paid upfront and the rest based on performance

UK distributor Northamber has acquired Renaissance Contingency Services, an Irish value-add cybersecurity distributor for the value of €900,000 (£763,369).

This move to acquire the €5.5m-revenue distie marks Northamber's expansion into the European market.

The deal follows Northamber's recent purchase of Tempura Communications, under the company's growth strategy in the areas of AV, UC&C, cybersecurity, and infrastructure solutions.

Alex Phillips, executive chairman of Northamber, tells CRN about the distributor's M&A strategy: "Northamber's acquisition strategy is to focus on well-run businesses with strong heritage and strong management teams.

"As such, we have a low-touch approach and keep management teams in place but support them with additional investment, back office and logistics support, as well as sharing partner relationships to help scale.

"We will be looking with Michael Conway (MD at Renaissance) and his team at how we can build around the Renaissance core cybersecurity business."

Phillips says Renaissance is widely recognised as the "go-to" distributor for cybersecurity in Ireland and brings to Northamber a wealth of expertise and partnerships with industry-leading suppliers.

He emphasises the significance of this acquisition in Northamber's broader strategy: "This is a very important step.

"Combined with our recent acquisition of Tempura Communications group, which has an Irish and Dutch subsidiary, we are now able to offer our focus technologies of AV, UC, cyber and network infrastructure in Ireland.

"We will continue with resource investment and a focused geographic expansion into target markets around these core technologies and our core vendors."

Michael Conway, MD of Renaissance, shared his perspective on the deal: "To sustain our growth ambitions and to further enhance our value to the vendors that we represent and to our clients and their customers whose cyber protection is the priority, we concluded that being acquired by Northamber was the most effective way to achieve this."

Addressing concerns about potential changes, Phillips states: "There are no planned changes. Conway will continue to lead the business with his team remaining in place."

The acquisition is expected to enhance Northamber's focus on cybersecurity, a segment in which the company has operated for approximately three decades.

Phillips underscores this commitment: "Northamber is committed to investing and developing our presence in the cybersecurity sector. Having been involved for almost 30 years in cybersecurity in the UK with leading brands like WatchGuard for over 25 years, it is a sector we are passionate about and see strong growth opportunities in for both the UK and other markets.

"We will do this through organic and strategic acquisitions as we find the right opportunities."