ALSO has embraced Westcoast as the “entrepreneurial, scrappy, energetic being we are”, two of its top executives claimed as they opened up for the first time on the duo’s integration plans.
Swiss broadliner ALSO completed its acquisition of UK-based peer Westcoast last February, creating a pan-European giant with a €15bn top line.
Talking to IT Channel Oxygen, Westcoast CEO Sunil Madhani and CRO Phil Bell revealed the Theale-based distributor – which is now going to market as ‘Westcoast, Powered by ALSO’ – has signed 50 new vendors since the deal closed.
Madhani said the message since the start has been “no change, no change, no change, opportunity, opportunity, opportunity”, stressing there was “no huge overlap” between the duo’s UK coverage.
“This acquisition for [former Westcoast Chairman] Joe [Hemani] and me was probably the only one we would have done,” he explained.
“Tough decisions”
Having been “left very much left alone” in 2025, Westcoast has more recently had to take a couple of “tough decisions” regarding how to deal with three areas of overlap, Madhani said, however.
The two brands are on course to complete the integration of their French arms by the end of June, with Madhani acknowledging Westcoast’s €250m operation there was on the “losing end” to ALSO’s €600m Gallic arm.
The closure of Westcoast’s French warehouse led to it giving 29 staff notice to leave, he confirmed.
“ALSO France was very commercially focused. Westcoast France was retail-focused, so again it feels like a marriage made in heaven,” Madhani said, however.
Boasting revenues of circa £10m and £150m respectively, ALSO Cloud UK – which launched in 2023 – and Westcoast Cloud are also in the process of being brought together.
This will see Westcoast migrate a million unique users from its platform to ALSO’s, handing it access to a broader range of vendors.
“That transition of ALSO Cloud and Westcoast Cloud will happen at the end of June – we’ve taken our time deliberately,” Madhani said.
Although Westcoast had been licensing ALSO’s cloud panel for around ten years anyway, it will now fully integrate onto its SAP-based system.
“[With ALSO] not having much of a presence in the UK until ALSO Cloud UK existed, we were actually renting their panel – in fact, we were probably one of their biggest outsource partners,” Madhani explained.
The final area of overlap was in Germany, where Westcoast had to retract its presence and “basically hand it over to ALSO”, Madhani said.
“They’re sprinkling some goodness on top”
When it comes to the UK and Ireland – where Westcoast boasts a circa 25% marketshare – ALSO’s mission is to “build on top of what we’ve got”, Bell stressed, however.
“They bought a fantastic cake, and they’re now sprinkling some goodness on top – they’re not messing with the ingredients or the base,” he said.
“We are fantastic at going deep into our partners, but it’s no secret that we’re not the best platform business, whether that be the web or the various tools. That is what ALSO are giving us.
“Whether it be the web shop, CRM, data analytics… they’re all sprinkled on top to make us better – and all of those things are going to be used to drive that SMB.”
Asked about what they miss most about working for an entrepreneurial, privately held business, Bell claimed “not much has changed”.
“We were talking to ALSO about, ‘can we do this, can we do that?’, and they haven’t said ‘no’ to us yet,” he said.
“They’re a Swiss-listed business, but their appetite to win is great – and I think they’re really enjoying Joe’s mentality that has bled through to us.
“Fair play to them for letting us be that entrepreneurial, scrappy, fighting, energetic being we are.
“The one thing I’d say we do miss is Joe. We miss his energy and his leftfield, ‘let’s do something crazy over here’.”
Madhani acknowledged that Westcoast “wasn’t something me and Joe could have kept on going without ALSO’s support”, such is the level of investment in systems required in distribution in 2026.
“The future will be about how we automate, how we make the website better, how we allow people to online check in, online acquisition, online purchase, online review etc – everything’s going online, right?,” he said.
“It’s something we didn’t pursue as a private company. But as a public company, I think we have an obligation due to our investors to do something different.”
“Joe and I would never have been able to give that type of opportunity to this company”
As local peer Exertis’ woes deepened, Westcoast has signed around 50 new vendors since last February, Madhani revealed.
This includes AMD.
“That’s more than I’ve signed in the last 20 years, and I put that largely down to the ALSO acquisition,” he said.
“Having the benefit of their leadership, but also their balance sheet… and they’re also preaching about the platforms, the website…
“…We don’t have these, but these are all things that are in the pipeline to come, whether it takes three, six or 12 months. Joe and I would never have been able to give that type of opportunity to this company because we wouldn’t have been in a space where we’re spending $5m, $10m, $20m, $30m, $50m on a system.
“We’re never going to be a broadliner, but clearly we want to be fighting in every category in a meaningful way.”
ALSO has “really adopted us”, Madhani added, however.
“We are stronger as part of a group, but I don’t think ALSO is going to displace [the] Westcoast UK and Ireland [brands] in the near term,” he concluded.
Doug Woodburn is editor of IT Channel Oxygen
