Westcoast has acquired smaller peer Spire Technology in a move that would bolster its expertise in the “red hot” semiconductor space, IT Channel Oxygen understands.
Ranked 16th in IT Channel Oxygen’s Must-Know Distributors, Dorset-based components specialist Spire counts Asus, Corsair, Fractal, BeQuiet, TP-Link and Norton among its vendors.
It branded its fiscal 2023 a “solid year”, despite revenues slipping 3% to £103m in the wake of a “continued fall in hardware demand”.
Westcoast is already the UK’s largest distributor, with 2023 revenues hitting £3.6bn (£3.06bn of which were drawn from the UK). October 2022 saw the Theale-based giant pole-vault into Germany via the acquisition of Komsa, with mobile distributor Data Select (2019) among its other recent purchases.
Despite a lack of official comment, multiple sources have indicated to us that a deal has been sealed, with Companies House filings also hinting at a change of ownership at Spire.
It would be the latest example of consolidation in the UK distribution space in space, following Giacom’s acquisition of Inty and DataSolutions selling up to Climb.
“The semiconductor industry is red hot”
Informa fellow Steve Brazier branded Westcoast’s expansion “nothing short of remarkable”.
“Spire brings deep components expertise into the group…and you don’t need to be a great analyst to spot that the semiconductor industry is red hot, and likely to continue that way,” he told us.
Update
Since publication, Westcoast has officially confirmed the acquisition, with Executive Alex Tatham characterising the deal as “totally accretive” and stressing that the duo share no common vendors.
