Xerox acquires £24m-revenue managed print partner

Vendor says deal will help it expand its managed print strategy in Europe

Xerox has snapped up managed print provider Arena Group, continuing a trend that has seen print vendors acquire from their channel base.

Wakefield-based Arena is a partner of Xerox, as well as competitors Toshiba, Kyocera and Epson. The firm reported flat sales of £23.6m in its most recently reported year, ending 31 December 2018.

Xerox said the acquisition will help it bring its US managed print model into the European market.

Hervé Tessler, president of EMEA operations at Xerox, said: "Building on our success in the small and mid-size business market in the US, we're now expanding our strategy to Europe.

"With the acquisition of Arena Group, we will be uniquely positioned to offer workplace solutions in one of the fastest-growing managed print services segments in Western Europe."

Arena Group managing director Adrian Fitzpatrick added: "There is no better time to join Xerox, a company undergoing a digital-first transformation and investing in the future.

"With our complementary client bases and Xerox's comprehensive portfolio of offerings, we will be able to address the growing needs of the SMB market together."

Xerox has acquired partners in the past, in the form of Concept Group and NewField IT.

The likes of Sharp and Kyocera have done the same, but it was HP that completed the largest deal of this nature when it acquired Apogee in 2018.

Then-CEO Dion Weisler described the move as a defensive one, to ensure that a competing vendor did not acquire the partner and swap out all of HP's machines in the field.