Woking: New Wick Hill division to help vendors establish a pan-EMEA footprint

Surrey-based value-added distributor Wick Hill Group – which specialises in secure IP infrastructure solutions – has formed a new division, Wick Hill Select, to provide comprehensive market entry and growth support for vendors who are looking to establish a presence in or expand across EMEA.

Ian Kilpatrick, chairman Wick Hill Group, commented: “We’ve established Wick Hill Select to work with vendors who want to grow rapidly in EMEA and who are looking for a distributor who can offer market support and high value-added services across the EMEA region. The challenge that many such vendors face is inconsistent delivery from distributors across different territories. We aim to provide a common proposition and consistent delivery across a pan-EMEA footprint.”

Wick Hill Select will provide a bespoke range of value-added services including international technical support services; marketing support; reseller identification, targeting and recruitment; pre-and post-sales engineering and consultancy support services; product sales support; market analysis, etc. The service is flexible enough to focus in on any particular help that vendors need.

Kilpatrick commented: “Some vendors may be looking for full sales support, as well as marketing. Others may need our ability to provide specialist focus around a particular reseller. We aim to provide vendors with the resource set they need for the territories they are entering. For high-growth vendors, in market entry mode, this will provide them with access to a one-stop shop route to market.”

Wick Hill Select is a division within Wick Hill, with its own dedicated team, and is outside of Wick Hill’s core portfolio. The division will form a key component of Wick Hill’s plans for international expansion. Currently, Wick Hill has offices in the UK and DACH (Germany, Switzerland and Austria) region, but that international capability is planned to grow rapidly across EMEA, enabling Wick Hill to quickly offer vendors a full EMEA-wide solution.

In July 2015, Rigby Private Equity, the private equity arm of Rigby Group Investments, made a significant investment in Wick Hill. This deal gave Wick Hill the opportunity to pursue further expansion, particularly in EMEA, and the establishment of Wick Hill Select is part of that EMEA expansion plan.

Black Duck Software is the first vendor to join Wick Hill Select. Black Duck’s industry-leading solutions help companies secure and manage open source software. US-based Black Duck has appointed Wick Hill to assist with its aggressive EMEA region expansion.