Deal with Anovo will help drive business and boost appeal across its 170 markets
Ingram had described its £80 million acquisition with Anovo as the missing piece of its armoury as it looks to build closer ties with operators and retailers globally.
The organisation, which had revenues of $42.6 billion in its last financial year, finally put pen to paper on a deal with Anovo this month – exactly a year since negotiations began during Mobile World Congress. The deal is expected to add about $300 million in additional annual services revenues.
According to Ingram Micro, the deal will “significantly” extend its geographic reach in offering buy back and trade in services, particularly in Europe and Latin America, whilst enhancing its relationships with operators, manufacturers and retailers on a global scale.
According to Ingram Micro Mobility president of Europe Jac Currie (pictured right), the addition of Anovo, as well as other services introduced to its portfolio in recent months and years’ – is helping to open doors. “We are starting to get recognised by the carriers, OEM and retail community and we are having far more serious discussions globally, including Europe and the UK. When you add all the services together, there are very few companies that can match us.”
He added: “The best strategy to implement is the one the customers wants you to and that’s what Ingram Micro has been doing. From an end-to-end device lifecycle point of view, Anovo completes the end to end proposition.”
Exploring opportunities
The plan, according to Currie, and Ingram Micro Mobility president Shailendra Gupta (pictured centre), is to explore opportunities across all its markets where the Anovo model and “expertise” can be used and viably implemented. Ingram has been offering the market buy back and trade-in services (North America) since 2012 – as a result of its $840 million acquisition of Brightpoint. The firm has already established a number of major customers, including T-Mobile providing buy back and trade in services, something it is keen to expand upon.
“If you look at the legacy Brightpoint business in North America, buyback was its prime focus” explained Currie. “It has a massive repairs operation. Most of the mobility business, legacy of Brightpoint, was services, whilst in Europe it was mostly distribution focussed. Our strategy is not driven by what our competitors do, but what our customers want and to duplicate our capabilities across more markets.
“None of the competition has the global footprint we have. From a capability point of view, Tech Data Mobile and Brightstar are not doing actual repairs. We do, either on behalf of the retailer, an operator or the OEM be it warranty or out of warranty repairs.”
Gupta added: “If we wanted to or had an opportunity tomorrow to set up repairs in a country we don’t yet have it, we now have the expertise now in the global team to do it.
“Will we have reverse logistics and repair of the kind we are doing with Anovo in every single one of our markets? That will of course depend on the opportunity. They are the best in class in terms of go to market and execution.”
No time to wait
Anovo, which was founded in 1987, operates in 12 countries across Europe, Asia and Latin America annually servicing around 20 million products.
Currie admitted the decision to acquire, rather than roll out its own buy back and trade business is largely down to contractual agreements being obtained with OEM, retailers and operators which he says can take a long time to achieve.
Anovo currently boasts enviable list of repair contracts with key handset manufacturers, retailers and mobile operators, including; Samsung, Microsoft Mobiles, BlackBerry, Sony Mobile, LG, Huawei, Carphone Warehouse, Tesco, Asda, EE and O2.
Relief
Also in attendance at Mobile World Congress was Anovo Group CEO Fran̤ois Lacombe (pictured left) who expressed both his excitement of the opportunities now available to the organisation Рas well as relief due to the time its taken to complete.
He told Mobile News since the proposed deal was first announced back in November, Anovo has been actively speaking with its existing and prospected partners – describing the response as “overwhelmingly” positive.
“It’s a great opportunity” said Lacombe at the Ingram Micro stand in Barcelona. “The reason Ingram Micro came knocking on our door was primarily because customers are demanding integrated services.
“Most of the recent RFP’s we have had, be it in Europe or elsewhere, are asking for a full range of service from distribution to inventory financing, be it forward logistics, reverse, repair, buyback, and or disposal.
“The overwhelming reaction has been extremely positive. It’s one of integration, patching up our coverage and with the footprint of Anovo which is Europe and Latin America we combine perfectly into the Ingram Micro network.”