Midwich, Nuvias and Pax8 drive early consolidation efforts

The year has started with distribution flexing its muscles on the consolidation front and several channel players deeming it the right moment to expand their portfolio.

Audio-visual specialist Midwich has taken a majority stake in Cooper Projects, the parent company of distributor and video security expert DVS, as it looks to expand its knowledge and customer base in that area.

Cardiff-based DVS handles CTTV and associated video-recording technologies and has a strong relationship with vendor HikVision. The firm operates in numerous verticals, including corporate, retail and residential markets.

Stephen Fenby, Midwich Group managing director, said the firm wanted to gain more of a foothold in the security video market and acquisition was the route. “The acquisition of DVS gives Midwich access to a significant segment of the security market in which we currently have little presence, and which is expected to grow at around 8% per annum for the next five years,” he said.

“The knowledge and support of the experienced DVS team should help realise new opportunities for our customers in an increasingly converging technology market.  Similarly, we believe that much of DVS’s extensive customer base uses, or could use, our core AV products in their projects.”

Tim Goodson, managing director of DVS, said it had always wanted to grow the business and it would support that ambition with a tie-up with Midwich.

“The Midwich team quickly grasped the understanding of our available technologies and how they could also be used by their own customers in an ever-converging space,” he said. “We are super excited to be part of the Midwich group, which has a wealth of experience and knowledge that we can utilise to make sure our ambitious plans are met as we look to grow DVS.”

The existing management team at DVS, including Goodson, commercial director Gavin Dunleavy and CTO David Davies, will maintain a stake in the business and work with Midwich to grow the business.

Elsewhere, Nuvias has also been using acquisition to deepen its coverage across mainland Europe by picking up Alliance Technologies, a UC specialist distie based in Germany.

Nuvias will use the deal to deliver more unified comms support across DACH (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) at a time when demand in that region is rising.

“We have seen increasing demand for end-to-end UC solutions in continental Europe,” said Nuvias UC CEO Jeremy Keefe. “In particular, we wanted to have a greater local presence in DACH where partners are looking for distributors with a strong portfolio to meet the varying needs of end-user businesses that are transitioning to a hybrid work environment, combining home/remote working and office-based working.

“With Alliance Technologies’ expertise in voice, video, customer care and cloud services, we will be able to offer even greater value to our existing partners and vendors.”

Pax8 has also been expanding geographically by snapping up cloud services distributor TVG as it looks to move into the Baltic region.

The Latvian firm has a strong reputation in cloud services and software and will give its new owner a chance to break into its home country and Lithuania plus Estonia.

“Gartner predicts that end-user spending on public cloud services will reach $482bn in 2022,” said John Street, CEO at Pax8. “Now more than ever, it is critical that companies migrate their technology to the cloud to maintain pace with the evolving market demands.

“This acquisition enables Pax8 to expand into the Baltic states to offer partners access to its award-winning marketplace, education, and localised support. Together, we are enabling partners worldwide to capitalise on the market opportunities with cloud technology and drive the digital transformation.”