Exertis Hammer expands further into mainland Europe

Storage distributor sets up office in Barcelona, boosting its European coverage to seven countries

Storage distributor Exertis Hammer has established a presence in Spain with a new office location in Barcelona.

The green-field expansion comes with the launch of a new subsidiary called Exertis Hammer Iberia.

James Ward, managing director Exertis Hammer, said: "This expansion is testament to the investment and focus by Exertis Hammer in developing the European market."

"Since our acquisition, we have focused on expanding our presence across Europe.

"Opening a new office in Barcelona, Exertis Hammer Iberia, is part of that programme and will be followed by a continual physical, as well as business, expansion. This is only the start!"

The entity will be led by Francesco Montuoro, who moved to the distributor last month from managed hosting provider Arsys, according to his LinkedIn.

"Francesco brings many years of experience in sales, business development and marketing in the ICT sector working both with direct and indirect channel and vendors," said Exertis Hammer's general manager for Europe, Steve Cowley.

"His focus will be on establishing a strong business across Iberia."

The Barcelona office means Exertis Hammer is now present in eight European countries, adding to its existing operations in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the UK.

The distributor works with 36 vendors in the UK including Dell EMC, Intel, Broadcom and Toshiba.

Exertis acquired Hammer in 2016 in a deal worth £38.3m (€43.08m). The business continued to operate as a separate entity until July last year, when Exertis combined its enterprise division with Hammer and rebranded it to Exertis Hammer.

The wider Exertis brand, which is owned by technology company DCC, has been aggressively expanding across Europe and the US in recent months. The distributor added €250m revenues to its European business last month through two acquisitions: German audiovisual VAD Comm-Tech and Dutch consumer electronics player Amacom.

The European M&A was preceded by two acquisitions in the North American market - for AV specialists Stampede and Jam Group - which brought DCC's North American revenues to $600m.