01732 759725
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ACQUISITIONS
Sebastiaan
Crebolder,
Group
Operations and
Marketing Director
The transaction marks Pinnacle’s
third acquisition in less than two
years and further strengthens its
strategy to become of the largest
Managed Print Services providers in
South Wales and the South West.
In March 2015, Group Managing
Director, Clive Hamilton, completed an
MBO of the business he’d worked at for 23
years. Under his leadership, the company
recorded its highest ever level of year on
year growth in 2016, with turnover rising
from £4.5 million to £7 million.
Part of this growth came from
Hamilton’s strategy to grow through
acquisition. In February 2016, it bought
Fast Technology Services and six months
later purchased significant assets from
IT Provider ComputerWorld in Bristol
and wholly integrated that within its
operations.
“Today, bigger dealerships buying
smaller ones is a trend and achieving
growth through acquisition is standard
practice,” Group Operations and Marketing
Director, Sebastiaan Crebolder, said,
adding: “This latest deal has added £1
million to our business.”
The company was established 26
years ago and up until the MBO, it was
primarily a hardware-centric organisation.
Whilst it did offer a number of document
workflow solutions, its core business was
within the print hardware arena. Following
the MBO, Hamilton chose to align its
portfolio with market demands and evolve
the business to offer more solutions and
software services to complement its range
of printers and hardware, associated
workflow solutions and managed print
services.
The Pinnacle Document Solutions
Group now comprises three companies:
Pinnacle Office Equipment, which was
one of the first mono branded Xerox
Concessionaires in the UK and offers
the OEM’s full range from small desktop
printers, to MFPs and digital colour
production presses. The company is a
Gold Partner Concessionaire, as well as
a Xerox accredited Advanced Managed
Print Services and Production Specialist.
Fast Technology Services, a business that
specialises in IT printer hardware and
related technologies whose offer includes
specialised print such as Zebra and
TallyGenicom, alongside Xerox, Toshiba,
Konica Minolta and Samsung; and most
recently Copier Mate.
“It’s commonplace within the Xerox
mono brand channel for dealerships to
purchase other Xerox concessionaires, but
we chose a different approach,” Crebolder
explained. “We prefer to buy businesses
that work with other vendors, and this
provides us with an opportunity to grow
Xerox business by churning those machines
into Xerox devices.”
He added: “That’s our strategy for
The Cardiff-headquartered company has
completed the acquisition of Copier Mate, one
of Wales’ largest independent Toshiba dealers
Pinnacle Document Solutions
completes third acquisition
in two years
growth, we have done that in the past –
it’s a proven strategy and works for us.”
Commenting on the latest acquisition
Hamilton said he was delighted to
welcome Copier Mate to the Group.
“We have ambitious growth plans and
this acquisition will allow us to offer
our workflow and managed documents
services offering to an even larger
customer base,” he said.
The move was welcomed by Carl Day,
Toshiba Channel indirect Sales Director UK
& Ireland: “We are delighted that Copier
Mate has joined the Pinnacle Group. Under
the Pinnacle umbrella, Copier Mate will be
able to accelerate Toshiba’s market share
growth within South Wales, benefiting
from the Group’s extensive infrastructure
and resources. We look forward to working
with Pinnacle and Copier Mate, assisting
in the success of our UK growth strategy.
I take great pleasure in welcoming
their clients and staff to the Toshiba Tec
community.”
Copier Mate’s previous owner Ed
Barnett, said: “Pinnacle is a long-standing
player in the industry with a sterling
reputation and they are a company, we
feel, similar to that of Copier Mate. In fact,
our values and approach to business are
so similar, that we felt this was an ideal
partnership to make.”
For the foreseeable future Copier Mate
will continue to trade under its existing
brand as a company within the Pinnacle
Document Solutions Group. Copier Mate
Today,
bigger
dealerships
buying
smaller ones
is a trend and
achieving
growth
through
acquisition
is standard
practice
