Advania UK will “not be throwing the baby out with the bathwater” on 4 August when it rebrands recent acquisitions CCS Media and Servium, its CEO has asserted.
A new UK MSP-reseller powerhouse was born last year when Advania UK – known for its prowess as a Microsoft-focused MSP – snapped up first Servium, and then CCS Media.
The enlarged business employs 1,600 staff across 20 locations, and boasts runrate revenues of around £470m.
Advania UK yesterday announced that the two acquired brands will change their names this summer to “better reflect our unified business” (see bottom).
From 4 August, the three businesses will all operate under the Advania UK brand, with all employees now operating under one company and one IT system, CEO Geoff Kneen confirmed to IT Channel Oxygen.
Account management message
Kneen was quick to emphasise that customers will see no change in account management, however.
“We’re coming together on the 4th, but we’re not throwing the baby out with the bathwater on the brands,” Kneen said, stressing that CCS Media and Servium’s websites will continue to operate.
“Some of the names are changing, but we’re getting bigger and more capable and are able to offer more value to them. We really believe in the relationship we have with our clients through our account managers, and we’re actually going to be doubling down on that.
“We very much want our clients to understand their account manager today will be their account manager tomorrow. This is about helping those account managers bring the additional capability Advania has as a group to those relationships.
“We’re writing to all our clients this week to confirm that this is what’s happening.”
Integration update
Advania UK in February kicked off its integration of CCS Media and Servium by promoting their respective leaders, James Hardy and Paul Barlow, to group leadership positions.
As of 4 August, the Cisco, Dell, HP, HPE, Lenovo and Microsoft partner will have completed the double integration from a people, brand and values perspective, Kneen said.
“It allows us to operate as one team, because we’re all employed by the same entity and are all using the same tenant and technology to collaborate. Going forward, we’ll all have the same email sign offs,” he said.
Mirroring a recent Advania UK roll out, all CCS Media and Servium employees will now be handed Microsoft Copilot licenses. Advania’s values – namely its commitment to ‘never losing a client’ and ‘our difference is you’ staff motto – will also be rolled across the two acquired brands. “We’re working with all the teams as to how we incentivise people around the Advania Way and how we all live the values of the Advania Way,” Kneen said.
Traditionally a CCS Media customer event, Connect25 on 6 June will be the first public outing for the expanded group, Kneen added.
Race to £1bn
Advania CEO Hege Store recently claimed its midmarket customers are increasingly turning to it as their end-to-end IT partner, as it unveiled 2024 group sales of £1.18bn
But is the Sweden-based outfit likely to make more UK acquisitions?
“2025 is definitely a year of integration and getting full value from everything we achieved in 2024,” Kneen responded.
“But from 2026 onwards, we’ll be back looking at the market for strategic bolt-ons.
“The UK is a £150bn market. We’re in the race to £1bn – as you pointed out. We’ll get a long way there through organic growth, but we will also continue to do strategic acquisitions in the future.”
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Doug Woodburn is editor of IT Channel Oxygen
