‘We knew it was going to fit that gap in our service offering perfectly well’ - Advania UK CEO talks CCS Media buy

The merger, which completes today, is set to create a Top 20 UK reseller. And it is just the beginning

It’s official – just two weeks after news broke that reseller Advania had signed a deal to purchase CCS Media, the buyout has been finalised.

The move significantly enhances Advania’s presence in the UK, after the Stockholm-HQ reseller first entered the market in 2021 with its purchase of Content + Cloud.

This strategic expansion aligns with Advania's ongoing efforts to broaden its service offerings and solidify its position as a leading IT services provider in Northern Europe.

In an interview with CRN, Geoff Kneen, CEO of Advania UK, emphasises the strategic importance of the acquisition and elaborates on some of the behind the scenes work in closing the deal.

"A lot of the work this week has been about how we're going to take that expanded offering to market, what it means to our existing clients, and now it means we can bring that broader technology footprint to life for clients," he says.

This acquisition follows Advania's recent purchase of British value-added reseller Servium in June 2024, a move aimed at enhancing its reselling capabilities.

With the addition of CCS Media, Advania's combined annual revenue in the UK is projected to be in excess of £450m for 2024, likely positioning the company to break into the Top 20 of the UK’s largest VARs and MSPs.

"With CCS's breadth across in terms of the scale of the business and how we can operate across the whole UK market, with relationships with over 2,000 vendors, we knew that [it] was going to fit that gap that we had in our service offering perfectly well,” Kneen says.

The company has been quickly expanding its presence in the UK, starting with the acquisition of Content+Cloud in December 2021.

Content+Cloud rebranded as Advania UK in November 2023, marking a significant step in integrating Advania's services into the UK market.

The circular economy – a major opportunity

According to Kneen, a key area where CCS’s solutions complement its new parent is sustainability and the circular economy.

"We believe over the next three to seven years, the industry will move much more towards the circular economy," he explains.

He points to Advania’s Dreamhouse project in Sweden – a purpose-build recycling centre set to be unveiled in 2025 - as an example of the Goldman Sachs-owned group’s commitment to lifecycle management and sustainable practices.

“Strategically, we will progress in that area in the UK as well,” Kneen adds, sharing plans to offer clients services like equipment recycling and refurbishment.

“We will look to provide clients with more of that circular through-life service, recycling equipment in a sustainable way at the end of its life.”

The conversation then turns to AI, Copilot and intelligent devices – as refresh cycles shorten and AI devices become a necessity, how does this fit into the vision of a brighter, greener, more refurbished future?

Microsoft, AI and becoming a trusted advisor

Advania, an early Microsoft Copilot adopter and part of the trial release of the Microsoft offering as of last year, has since purchased licenses for all of its UK employees.

It is now on the hunt for use cases, so as to be able to provide its clients with the tailored support they will need throughout their AI adoption journey, Kneen says.

"One of the first areas we focused on is use and adoption of Copilot within organisations," Kneen tells CRN.

Advania has been helping clients navigate AI technologies by offering training and support through its business change and adoption team, which guides clients from pilot phases to full deployment.

"We run a lot of prompt labs for our client base, and then we work with our clients to go through that change cycle so that their people understand and use the technology," he explains.

Beyond Copilot, Advania continues to explore other AI technologies based on client needs.

"We work with our clients to understand their business challenges," the CEO says.

"The use cases normally come from those challenges, and then we help them adopt the relevant parts of AI to capitalise on the capability in the right way for their organisation."

But Kneen is keen to highlight Advania’s capabilities beyond its deep relationship with Microsoft.

The integration of CCS Media is expected to provide clients with a comprehensive suite of services, leveraging CCS Media's extensive vendor relationships and Advania's expertise in managed services and digital transformation.

Kneen notes: "We don't want our clients to have to go anywhere else for their strategic technology needs."

By integrating CCS Media, Advania hopes to strengthen its partnerships with major technology vendors like Cisco, HP, Dell, and Lenovo.

"We’re a big partner for those organisations as well," Kneen said.

“The vendors know that Advania provides clients not only access to technology but also the know-how to leverage that technology for maximum benefit across their businesses."