Advania UK unveils unified leadership team

It’s been a few months since Advania UK acquired CCS Media, and the firm has made some leadership changes as part of the integration process. The changes will establish a structure that will unite its other UK acquisition Servium with a single unified leadership team.

The firm has signalled that the full integration will not be completed until later this year, but the introduction of a unified structure is a key plank in that process.

Geoff Kneen, CEO of Advania UK, said that there had been progress and that the three firms already worked well. “Everyone across the business has seen the additional value that we can now take to all of our clients, they have collaborated seamlessly and ensured that our clients are benefitting from the combined portfolio of services,” he said.

To build on that progress, the firm is unveiling a rejigged leadership team to help create a unified structure. Under the changes the role of James Hardy, chief commercial officer of Advania UK, will be expanded to the whole business, with a brief to oversee the combined strategy, pre-sales and vendor alliances. He was previously CCO at CCS Media.

The former CEO of Servium, Paul Barlow, will step into the chief revenue officer role at Advania UK. He was CEO for 15 years and comes with a wealth of experience, which he will bring to his role of looking after client relationships, as well as overseeing marketing and positioning the Advania brand in the UK.

As part of the changes, Terry Betts has stepped down as CEO of CCS Media and move into retirement. His market knowledge will not be totally lost to the firm as he has agreed to remain close to the business and act as an adviser when needed.

“We are very grateful to Terry and the whole team for building an amazing business in CCS Media. We all wish him well for the future and are pleased that we can call on his knowledge and experience in support of the ongoing success of the combined business,” said Keen.

“Bringing these businesses together as one team is exhilarating. The opportunities for our people to have broader and more varied career options means a great deal to us, and the combined value we can take to our clients is amazing. It is an incredibly exciting year and we are now positioned to capitalise on what we are building,” he added.

Nordic player and Microsoft partner Advania entered the UK market at the end of 2021 through the acquisition of Content+Cloud. It followed that up with a deal last June to buy Servium, which came with a strong mid-sized customer base, giving Advania more coverage of the SME market.

In October last year, Advania struck a deal to pick up CCS Media, providing it with an even greater presence in the UK thanks to the firm’s offices in the north of England, Scotland and Wales, plus an operation that worked with more than 2,000 manufacturer partners and sold more than one million products across 8,000 customers.