Advania UK is set to acquire CCS Media as the race to build scale among the country’s mega-VARs intensifies.
The Nordic powerhouse has reached a “definitive agreement” to acquire Chesterfield-based CCS Media, which turned over £277m in its latest year.
It marks the second reseller business Advania UK has acquired in 2024, following its deal for Servium in June.
It also follows the acquisition of £90m-revenue reseller Total Computers by boxxe in January.
At the time, boxxe CEO Phil Doye revealed to IT Channel Oxygen that the York-based outfit is striving to reach £1bn revenues “as soon as possible” to compete on an even footing with the likes of Softcat and CDW. He name-checked CCS Media as one of just five other buyable businesses of Total’s size or larger.
Germany headquartered Bechtle is another reseller giant determined to boost its UK business through acquisition – in the last two years it has grown UK revenues to €290m through its acquisitions of ACS, Tangible Benefit and (just this week) Qolcom.
“Landmark deal”
Dubbing it a “landmark deal”, Advania UK characterised its CCS Media acquisition “a significant advancement with Advania’s strategy in becoming the preferred end-to-end IT services provider in Northern Europe”. It is set to close in Q4.
Employing over 4,500 staff, Nordic powerhouse Advania leapt into the UK in December 2021 via its acquisition of managed services provider Content+Cloud. Advania UK ranked 35th in the recent Oxygen 250.
In November 2023, UK CEO Geoff Keen told IT Channel Oxygen that Advania UK was looking to acquire a UK VAR business as big as, if not bigger, than its managed services capability.
Now it has more than achieved this with Servium and CCS Media.
Pre-CCS Media, Advania UK claimed its UK revenue runrate stood at £180m-£185m.
CCS Media posted flat revenues of £277.4m in calendar 2023.
Advania UK said it now employs over 1,500 people at 20 UK locations, one South African location and the US.
“This is a game changer and a true testament to our commitment to the UK market,” Kneen said in a canned statement this morning.
“It represents a tremendous opportunity for two highly complementary and trusted businesses to join forces as a long-term strategic technology partner for our customers.”
In further pre-prepared remarks, Terry Betts, CEO of CCS Media, added: “The extensive capability of the combined business, and particularly Advania UK’s class leading partnership with Microsoft, will enable us to address a broader range of customer needs from devices & infrastructure, to strategy, cloud transformation, AI, and managed services.”
