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MANAGED SERVICES
Gary Naphtali is well known in the
industry as co-founder of P1, an
established provider of training
and development programs for the
channel. Five years ago, P1 signed
a three-month contract with Anglo
Office to provide sales and marketing
support, HR and management
resource, as well as assisting with
recruitment.
“The contract kept getting extended.
In fact, Anglo became P1’s biggest client,”
explained Naphtali. “It grew to the point
where I was spending three days a week
working with them and becoming ever
more tightly embedded in their day-to-day
[operations].”
In 2014 the relationship deepened
when Naphtali identified an acquisition
opportunity, assisted with the purchase of
Almo and managed the integration of its
sales and marketing functions. Six months
ago, he became even more involved when
Anglo founder Glen Doyle announced
that he wanted to semi-retire and was
considering selling the business.
“Anglo is a strong business; turnover
is approaching £11m and it has a healthy
balance sheet,” Naphtali explained. “We
opened up discussions and explored
ways in which we could take the business
forward via a management buyout.”
The outcome of these negotiations
was that Doyle and former owner Russell
Hodson both retained a share of the
business, with Naphtali and IT Director
Steve Newland completing an MBO for the
remaining majority shares. Newland and
Naphtali, who is no longer involved with
P1 operationally, also brought in Finance
Director Nick Jones.
A single source
More important than these changes, says
Naphtali, is the expansion of Anglo’s
service offering to meet the needs of
customers in the mid-market sector who
typically deal with multiple suppliers across
numerous product categories.
“The biggest business transformation
was identifying a new opportunity
in managed services that was worth
millions,” he said. “We found that within
mid-sized companies the supply chain
was in the main largely unmanaged. Our
approach was to transform how they
manage non-core expenditure, providing a
service that simplified the procurement of
anything for the office.”
When asked for more details of Anglo’s
offer, he added: “Imagine tipping your
office upside down. Everything that falls out
except for the people, Anglo can supply.”
In order to do this, Anglo has partnered
with a number of specialists in each
category. “It’s a really simple premise, but
the ability to supply across any category
has paid dividends, not only in terms of
Anglo Office is transforming how companies in London manage their
non-core expenditure to support business growth.
PITR
finds out more
from Managing Director Gary Naphtali
Partnering for growth
the new business we pick up, but also in
the fact that we’re successfully ring-
fencing customers, making it difficult for a
competitor to come in and take even the
smallest chunk of their spend,” explained
Naphtali.
On the print side, Anglo has partnered
with three suppliers: a local print provider
delivering ad hoc fast turnaround jobs on
behalf of customers; a specialist in digital
print; and a print management company.
“From the customers’ perspective, it’s
just one of the services we offer,” Naphtali
said. “We take a lower margin in areas
where we use a third-party provider, but
we don’t have any associated operating
costs. We might take a 4% to 5% margin
hit, but we’ve cut operating costs by up to
20%. Ultimately that means Anglo makes
more profit and is more competitive.”
Managed services
MPS is another area in which Anglo has
gained traction, after launching AngloTech
in a joint venture with Canon, Ricoh and
Olivetti reseller TechnoCopy.
“If you’re delivering true MPS, you have
to have credibility and strong relationships
with OEMs, as well as the ability to deliver a
service agreement. [Do it on your own] and
you could potentially spend more money
getting it off the ground than you would
make in return. It would certainly take a
lot longer. TechnoCopy has a ready-made
prospect and client base and a team of
sales people it would have to fund anyway,
so it’s a win-win,” Naphtali explained.
MPS deals secured in AngloTech’s first
six months have generated a quarter of
a million pounds in sales and ongoing
discussions with clients are potentially
worth a further £900,000 – with only 10%
of Anglo’s client base engaged so far.
“Importantly, we own the service
contracts which provide us with a recurrent
revenue stream,” explained Naphtali. “And
net profit is much healthier than we could
achieve by simply selling the individual
components.”
With the prospect of further growth in
MPS, Anglo is aiming to increase turnover
to £15 million organically. According
to Naphtali, it is also actively seeking
acquisitions. “We are predominantly
interested in OP companies in the London
area where we can add on a range of our
expanded services to increase turnover and
profitability, as we have done at Anglo and
Almo,” he said.
Gary Naphtali,
Managing Director.
Anglo Office
The biggest
business
transformation
was identifying
a new
opportunity
in managed
services that
was worth
millions
