Ingram solidifies POS and data capture lead with Vantex

Ingram Micro will look to take a dominant position in the retail point-of-sale and data capture market following its acquisition of Asia-Pacifi c distributor, Vantex. The distributor announced its purchase of Vantex to gain operations across Australia, New Zealand,

Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand last week. Ingram put down a $NZ2 million ($1.55 million) deposit for the net assets, subject to completion and goodwill, according to a statement posted on the New Zealand Stock exchange by Vantex’s parent company, ProvencoCadmus. The final purchase price was not outlined, but is payable in cash. The deal should close by May 31, subject to third-party and shareholder approval.

In an interview with ARN, Ingram Micro vicepresident A/NZ, Jay Miley, said Vantex gave it a great team and broader skill set, while also delivering geographic reach.

Over the past five years, Ingram has acquired six POS and data capture distributors across 15 countries.

“From Ingram’s perspective, the automated ID and data capture [AIDC] and POS business is a market we have been investing in worldwide. We have done several acquisitions in Europe, North America and China, and we have been trying to figure out how to get into this space across South-East Asia and A/NZ for several years,” Miley said. “It’s an attractive market, with strong growth rates – we see it as a good business to be in. And it’s adjacent to what we do, albeit it requires a different skills set.”

The pair plan to merge the Ingram POS and Vantex teams as one division under Ingram while retaining the Vantex branding. Vantex Australia managing director, Matt Maley, who will head up the combined division, said there was little vendor overlap.

“We have a set of unique vendor relationships Ingram didn’t have – there is some overlap with vendors such as Epson and IBM, but when you break it down by category, there is very little. Ingram is buying incremental growth, rather than duplication,” he said. “We also have a unique partner community – there is a small crossover at the top end, but we play in niche verticals.”

Maley cited healthcare as an emerging area, and its Motorola mobile device business as a significant growth driver. Vantex also targets the field services and in-vehicle applications sectors. Its biggest market is Australia. It has 68 staff locally, and 128 across the region.

Maley said the two organisations had been eyeing each other off since Ingram’s decision to enter the retail POS business in January 2007. Similarly to Vantex, Ingram focuses on retail POS equipment, barcode scanners, automated ID and data capture products. Vendors include NCR, IBM, Datalogic, HP and Wasp.

“Both companies were aware of each other as Ingram tried to develop a rival business to Vantex. We had initial discussions at tradeshows and vendor events,” Maley said. “The timing was right for our parent company to revisit that.”

Vantex distributes a range of retail POS, barcoding, cash register, DC and wireless products to resellers. Its major brands include Motorola, Wasp, Toshiba, IBM, MYOB, NEC, Cherry and Datalogic. The company generated revenues of $US83 million ($114 million) in its fiscal year ended June 30, 2008.

“The conditional sale to Ingram Micro is a signifi cant step in the recapitalisation strategy as advised to shareholders, with proceeds to be applied to reduce ProvencoCadmus’ bank debt,” ProvencoCadmus said in its statement. The sale of Vantex is expected to realise up to $NZ22.5m million including collection of retained debtors. ProvencoCadmus will also put aside $2m to support warranty claims for 12 months.

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