This article first appeared in News in the Channel magazine issue #36.
Northamber recently acquired Nuvias UC’s hardware business, which brings scale to the operation and will help to enable the company to take advantage of the growing opportunities in the UC sector.
The UC sector has enjoyed strong growth in the post-COVID years, and, with technology continuing to develop, alongside growing digitalisation, this is set to continue for years to come.
To have the best chance of capitalising on the opportunities that come with the predicted growth, an increasing number of companies in the sector are looking to grow by acquiring rivals, such as Northamber, which bought Nuvias UC’s hardware business for £7.1 million at the beginning of December.
Ian Kilpatrick, non-executive director of Northamber, says the business is a natural strategic fit for Northamber, which will accelerate its growth in the AV and UC markets.
The acquisition of the £28.8 million hardware revenue business delivers greater depth across Microsoft Teams and Zoom-certified video systems, enterprise voice and telephony, specialist UC endpoints, and smart workspace and meeting-room solutions with the Nuvias UC team bringing expertise in provisioning, configuration, technical pre-sales and enhanced warranty and support. For partners, this means improved availability, stronger vendor alignment, expanded technical support and comprehensive collaboration solutions all under one roof.
Combined with Northamber’s existing AV and UC portfolio, the acquisition creates a unified, scalable platform covering the spectrum of AV, UC&C and smart-office solutions. It also builds on Northamber’s acquisition of Tempura Communications in 2024 and Epatra in BeNeLux in 2025.
“The Nuvias UC acquisition brings significant scale,” says Ian. “It brings us the team, the customers and a broadening of our positioning across enterprise and public sector. It’s quite transformational for us. It’s an area where we’ve been pushing much harder in the past couple of years, including the acquisition of Tempura, and this will add to it.”
Strong growth
As mentioned, research points to strong growth in the UC sector in the coming years. “There’s a consistent view that UC and AV are going to continue to grow annually over the next five to 10 years,” says Ian. “Some of that is going to be fuelled by upcoming equipment refreshes. Back in COVID times, a lot of businesses put a lot of equipment in without necessarily researching what they were looking to do in the future with it – they needed to install things quickly to keep the business going.
“We’re now heading towards that point of the refresh cycle where those businesses are looking to upgrade. Strategically, there’s growth as people are moving towards more unified solutions, there is much more integration across an organisation as to what they’re working with in terms of the solution and how it is managed.
“For us, acquiring Nuvias UC is a strategic move as it means we’re also getting an increased skill set with capabilities across the group to help provide the solutions and backup for these increasingly unified and integrated solutions.”
The acquired business will also help Northamber to deliver value-added knowledge systems to customers. “The deal gives us the capabilities to provide technical knowledge, installation services, value-added services and more support systems and integrated systems that help people to make decisions,” says Ian.
Inside the deal
The deal itself took some time to come about.
“Deals always look instant when they are announced, but it took a while to complete,” says Ian. “We had an existing relationship with Nuvias UC, and when it became clear they were moving towards the software side, the deal transpired. Once it started to move, it was a very straightforward deal. We were very happy with how the deal progressed – the teams on both sides know what they are doing.”
Post-deal, Ian says that Nuvias UC will continue to trade, as Tempura does, as a standalone business unit. “But obviously, as we have added skills and knowledge into the group, our goal is to make sure we can share that knowledge across the group and share the facilities too. It’s a big jump for us in terms of the capabilities we get, the breadth of customers we get in terms of retailers and in terms of moving us further up the scale into enterprise-type customers alongside the SMB and mid-range area we are traditionally strong in.”
As Ian says, the deal helps to bring scale to Northamber’s operation. “We gain quite a number of significant enterprise resellers as part of this,” he says. “That broadens our positioning right across the market. It’s a significant acquisition for us and a big commitment to this market.
“This deal will help strengthen relationships with vendors, which will be important going forward given the changes that are taking place in the marketplace currently with the rapid evolution of technology. We’re providing market knowledge, but we’ve also got that knowledge of what the market is looking for. Therefore, we have a better voice when we’re talking to our vendors about strategic direction.”
For vendors and partners, there will be benefits from the acquisition. For instance, there will be integration of back-end systems, as well as efficiencies in product ordering and go-to-market strategies, Ian says.
There will be benefits for end customers too. While immediately post-acquisition, it is business as usual, there will be benefits that will become clear, such as broadened technical support from partners and more efficient delivery structures, and greater capability to deliver value-added services, according to Ian.
Future
Now the deal has been completed, the focus is firmly on the future – growing the business and delivering the value that partners and end customers want and more.
Ian says that while Northamber’s focus will be on organic growth, they will be keeping an eye on the market and any relevant opportunities that may arise. “We’re not actively in the market for another acquisition, but if something comes up that fits our vendor and technical directions, we will look at it,” he says.
“But, given the scale we’ve got now after this acquisition, we have a huge opportunity in the marketplace. Because we will be retaining Nuvias UC as a separate business unit, we need to be growing organically and getting the benefits across the group of the scale that we have while also getting the benefits of the individual elements that we have already.
“This is a market that the indicators show is set for growth in the coming years. But realistically, is this a market that’s likely to grow? The answer is yes because of the changes in the market with developing technology. We’re well-situated now with what we have inside the group to capitalise on the opportunities that this presents.”
Previous comments made at the time of the Nuvias UC hardware aquisition, from Konekt CEO Joel Chimoindes, and Northamber Chairman Alex Phillips, can be found here.
