Westcoast has created some legroom for growth by merging with German counterpart KOMSA.
The Reading-based distributor said the move would hand it access to the German market and boost its prowess in the unified comms market.
Westcoast will take over the shares from KOMSA’s founders and KOMSA chairperson Kerstin Grosse said that it was “the biggest step in the company’s history”.
The merger creates an outfit with revenues of more than €5.5 billion, 2,200 employees and brings together more than 400 technology partners with 30,000 retail partners.
Westcoast operates in France and Ireland but currently has no significant presence in Europe’s largest IT market, Germany. It has in the past attempted to boost its European coverage through the European Wholesale Group, an alliance with several other distributors that was disbanded in 2008.
KOMSA CEO and CFO Pierre-Pascal Urbon cited the convergence of IT and telecoms infrastructure as the main driver for the deal, which the duo claims creates “Europe’s largest family-owned ICT sales alliance”.
“By merging with Westcoast, we are able to enrich our sector expertise in telecommunications with IT. This is of high strategic value to us, as it allows us to offer our customers a unique range of services and pass onto them the efficiencies generated by the merger”, he said.
