Distributors that style themselves as ‘VADs’ “sometimes aren’t adding a lot of value”, the boss of Northamber’s newly rebranded cyber business has asserted.
Northamber today announced it has rebadged its UK cyber business as ‘Renaissance Distribution’, bringing it in line with the Irish business of the same name it acquired in 2024.
Launch vendors include long-standing Northamber ally WatchGuard, as well as Hornet Security, uSecure, Impossible Cloud and NROC.
Talking to IT Channel Oxygen, Michael Conway, Director of Renaissance Distribution Ireland, said the goal is to arm UK resellers with a full cyber solution stack, as well as consultancy services.
“[Northamber] has hundreds of partners who transact with WatchGuard, but actually a typical partner has a number of different security and cyber protection stacks,” he said.
“The business now of Renaissance Distribution in the UK will evolve with a number of the technologies we have been working with in Ireland over many years. [We’ll be] bringing those along to those partners to enhance the stack.
“A traditional WatchGuard partner might be focusing on firewalls, and then the additional technologies they add on endpoint protection and SASE technologies – but there’s also email protection and security awareness technologies. These are the technologies a partner now needs to deliver to an end customer to make them cyber secure and compliant.”
Asked where Renaissance fits into the UK cyber VAD landscape, Conway claimed some competitors are still focusing on SKUs rather than value.
“One of the challenges the channel sees is there’s not a lot of value sometimes in distribution,” he said.
“A huge part of this [rebrand] is actually the message that there is a lot more ‘V’ in the ‘VAD’.
“The consultancy value, and the value in adopting new technologies – that’s the massive difference that will stand Renaissance Distribution out.”
Characterising itself as the UK’s longest-standing distributor, AIM-listed Northamber saw revenues jump 22% year on year to £39.4m in its interim results (covering the six months to 31 December 2025). The period also saw it return to positive unadjusted EBITDA.
Although Conway is overseeing the unified Anglo-Irish Renaissance business, in the UK it will be headed up by Sales Director Qasim Bhatti.
Conway confirmed there will be no major operational changes for how the UK cyber business operates.
“There is a change of email domain, but their old emails will get through,” he explained.
“It is the same people, but we’ll be growing it further and it will be more focused for the partners going forwards.”
Doug Woodburn is editor of IT Channel Oxygen
