‘We’re prioritising growth in the UK’: New NoBlue2 CEO Chris Bunch
Bunch discusses his departure from D55, his new role as CEO and aggressive growth ambitions
“I’m not a Friday afternoon down the golf course type of CEO. For me it’s all about growth, which is a mixture of revenue and profitability,” says freshly appointed NoBlue2 CEO, Chris Brunch, in a conversation with CRN.
Bunch became the new head of the Nottingham-headquartered reseller in November and has since developed many plans to expand the company – in every sense of the word.
NoBlue2 is a NetSuite professional services provider and aims to implement and support IT solutions to drive business development, primarily through ERP.
The CEO tells CRN that various reasons, including “a mixture of [his] background” made the company appealing to him.
“I started my career working in ERP, working for a business called IFS.
“Since then, I've been in the world of public cloud tech services.
“Both tie together quite neatly in terms of what NoBlue2 does across ERP and cloud and services.
“I also like to talk to a broad range of customers in different countries and in different industries.
“One of the things I enjoy the most is talking to people about what's successful in their business, the challenges they've got and how we can help to solve them.”
Beyond this diversity of activities, Bunch says he was also attracted by NoBlue2’s solid foundations.
“NoBlue2 is a good established business.
“I like the kind of growth business and mindset that comes in private equity backed organisations.
“I'm also a big believer in smart, friendly people looking to get things done quickly and pragmatically.”
But what surprised the channel when Bunch announced his new role was that this transition came eight months after he became CEO of Manchester-based AWS partner D55.
Lifting the veil on the story, CRN asked Bunch what didn’t work for him over there.
“There’s no great secret around it; it was just not quite the right time for them in their life cycle for an external CEO.
“They're a small Amazon partner, which is an area that I really believe in, a space I've worked in for many years, with smart people, high quality services, and some interesting customers, but it was just probably a little bit too early in their life cycle.
“I'd probably be a better fit for them if they were private equity back and looked for some aggressive growth.
“But I really enjoyed my time there and I'm pleased with some of the work that we got done around our industry focus and our alignment to the energy sector with AWS specifically.
“So no mega drama, just not quite the right fit for me.”
Customer base and international ambitions
The newly appointed CEO says he can now focus on working with NoBlue2’s “300 to 400 customers” across the world, “from SMBs to larger enterprises.”
“On the NetSuite side, the smaller end of mid-market is where the company has the most success.
“There are some larger businesses that implemented NetSuite successfully and scaled, but NetSuite is not really targeting large enterprises, as there are other products that probably fit better if you're an FTSE 100 organisation.
“We have quite a few customers around ecommerce, like the kind of firms that would use Shopify as the core element of their ecommerce store, and who are using NetSuite as the back end behind that to drive their organisation.
“We work more often with private equity backed companies rather than venture capital ones.
“They are often UK headquartered or are the UK arm of international organisations.”
But NoBlue2’s influence goes beyond the UK, as it has already “delivered projects in 60 different countries in pretty much all major geographies.”
“Most of the team is based in the UK, but there's also a small team in Spain, and we’re planning on growing our decent sized team in the Philippines.”
While the business now has an international presence, it took several years for it to gain such influence.
Its story started in Nottingham, under the name “NoBlue”.
The company then merged with Elevate2 in July 2023, which brought over a London office.
“They also brought the Philippines team with them, as that was something they'd established quite early on as a great way to find additional NetSuite talent, specifically as there's a good local base of people with that functional expertise out there.”
Finally, the Leicester office comes from BrightBridge, “the third and most recent business to be acquired towards the back end of 2023.”
The company also counts an office in Madrid, Spain.
Headcount growth
The Iberic country is one of the many regions where the reseller is looking to hire, as the firm has “been there for a number of years” and has “a good core of loyal customers.”
“I am quite actively now looking for a new sales director in Spain to drive growth there.
“If we’re successful, we’ll look further into Portugal.
“I think Europe remains a strong and interesting market for the NetSuite, and therefore a good opportunity for us to grow and expand as the partner ecosystem remains relatively fragmented.”
But having a presence in different locations across the globe and worldwide ambitions doesn’t mean the company is losing sight of the UK, as “there is still a lot to go after” in the region.
“Assuming Elon Musk doesn't derail our democracy, we've got some good stability and a feeling of growth coming back to the UK economy, which is a good time for the private equity transactions and a good time for organisations to think about investing in their core business system.
“There's a good opportunity to grow what we've got through some more aggressive marketing and demand generation in the UK.”
In 2025, the reseller also plans on being commercially focused and is currently hiring in this sector.
“We have sales roles open in the UK and Spain, and several roles open for functional pre-sales related capability, so lots about expanding our capacity in that sector.
“We are also looking for additional high quality project managers off the back of a strong sales end to 2024.
“We’re always looking for high quality, functional consultants around both NetSuite and Microsoft Dynamics.
“Hiring NetSuite consultants who really understand the world of complex billing solutions will also be on our radar in Q1.”
Organically, these additions would bring 20 new heads to the company by the end of 2025, “maybe more depending on sales and market success,” Bunch tells CRN.
“It could also be significantly more than that, if there was any additional M&A related activity.”
But headcount is not NoBlue2’s priority, as Bunch explains that “one of the perks of this organisation is that we can scale revenues in a way that’s not purely directly tied to headcount.”
Short and long-term development
Between mergers, headcount development, and customer base, the business records a healthy activity this year and has made “about £15m in terms of revenue.”
But the company isn’t planning on stopping there and is projecting further gains in the long term.
“I’m not a Friday afternoon down the golf course CEO; for me this is all about growth, which is a mixture of revenue and profitability.
“We’ve got some really significant targets, as we are private equity backed.
“We’re also an ambitious group of people, and I think the market is strong, so we've got reasons to be pretty punchy.”
On the short-term - the next six to 12 months - the company is focusing on a mixture of things.
“We’re prioritising growth in the UK.
“That involves lots of go-to-market while also sharpening up some of our messaging; we've got some incredible stories to tell and some amazing customers.
“Getting closer to our customers is also a real focus for me, as I want us to be top tier for customer satisfaction, since our customer tenure with the business is generally long, and I would like to keep it that way.
“If somebody stops working with us, they do so because they've been acquired by another company, and they're being forced to use SAP, for example.”