Econocom has embarked on a hunt for further UK acquisitions after completing its integration of Trams, its new UK CEO Gavin Bell has revealed.
Having acquired Trams in 2021, Econocom this week renamed the London-based Apple reseller ‘Econocom Products & Solutions UK’.
The France-based outfit also now fully owns the business following the exit of previous CEO and co-owner Warren Peel in September.
Talking to IT Channel Oxygen, Bell said the change will clear the way for tighter integration with Econocom’s wider €2.7bn-revenue business, whose capabilities span workplace, infrastructure, audio visual and finance.
“We’re now a wholly owned subsidiary of the Econocom Group. It’s not just a name change. The reason we’re doing it is that we are looking to integrate the business more,” he said.
“Six months ago, people thought of Trams as a UK-centric reseller, even though it was ‘Trams|Econocom’.
“Now we’re part of a nearly 9,000-employee company across Europe, it means we can help customers that have a UK and European presence in other geographies.
“[Previously] Trams would only have been able to help them in the UK, and largely our technology portfolio was around Apple, Jamf and some storage around Quantum. We’re now broadening that out.”
“We’re looking at targets at the moment”
Adding in the contribution of its long-standing UK asset financing arm, Econocom is now a near €100m-revenue business in the UK, Bell said.
But the UK has been singled out for further M&A as Econocom chases its €4bn 2028 revenue target, Bell revealed.
Some 30% of that projected €1.2bn growth will come from acquisitions, with 70% from organic growth, he said.
“But in the UK, probably slightly more of it will come from acquisitions because we want to accelerate the UK business growth quicker,” he said.
Econocom is looking for “boutique”, UK-centric players with 20-100 staff, Bell said.
“We’re looking at broadening out that capability through another couple of acquisitions in the audio visual and MSP space to give us the same breadth of capability in the UK that we have in some of our more established countries, like France, Belgium, Italy and Spain,” he explained.
With around 60 acquisition under its belt, Econocom prefers to keep the previous owners involved for at least two to three years to ensure continuity.
“We’re looking at targets at the moment. One of the keys is to make sure the people who owned the business and are actively involved would want to stay with the business over the coming years,” Bell said.
On the back of Trams’ full integration, Econocom is also looking to link financing into more deals, Bell said.
A soon-to-launch Device-as-a-Service offering, dubbed ‘EASI’, will have a strong ESG play, he indicated.
“We don’t make anything. I can’t magically reduce the carbon footprint of devices. But what we can do is help customers make the right informed decisions at the start of the process, and then at the end of the process look at what they can do to recycle and reutilise or redeploy those devices,” he said.
Having joined from Computacenter in July, Bell said he is looking forward to the opportunity of growing the UK into a bigger chunk of Econocom’s business.
“I’m very mindful that we don’t want to lose the personalised service and ethos of Trams,” he said.
“Part of the attraction for me was leading the historic Trams business, but it was also that bit where you’ve now got the backing of the larger Econocom Group, and how we can grow in the UK.”
Doug Woodburn is editor of IT Channel Oxygen
