Actum Electronics recently announced that it had purchased the complete business of Altico Static Control Products. Altico is the only business in the South African market, which focuses exclusively on providing static control (ESD) products and solutions.
These products include the complete range of ESD packaging materials and accessories including ESD bags, cleaning materials, work surface mats, wrist bands, grounding cords, floor mats and flooring installations.
Altico is a well-established business, which has been in operation for over 14 years under the guidance of the previous owner, Henk Alting. Alting founded the business and ensured that it only represented the leading quality suppliers of ESD products. The solid business foundation and quality products was what attracted the two Actum directors, Kevin Klaff and Greg Barron, to pursue this opportunity.
"We saw this as an excellent business opportunity to grow our existing Actum base by being able to offer our clients additional quality products. The business model is very similar to what we saw when we purchased Actum in October 2004 - ie, a supplier of only top quality products," says Klaff. "We already have a very dynamic sales team constantly visiting our clients and this expansion provides our sales team with a much bigger arsenal of products to offer. It also made good sense from a financial point of view as we are already incurring the cost of our sales team actively visiting our clients."
Adds Barron: "Since taking over Actum, we have quickly learnt that the key for a medium-size business to thrive in a niche industry is by interacting directly with our clients on a face-to-face basis. We ensure that our sales team is visiting our clients on a regular basis to see what products and assistance we can offer. In many cases this has resulted in us sourcing products and providing solutions that we would not ordinarily stock. We actively try to be a service partner to our clients and the Altico acquisition increases our service and product offering.
"We constantly drive a business philosophy of closing the deal no matter what the size - this ensures that our business secures the sale and our clients secure the required products with a minimal amount of hassle," he adds.
Altico has been incorporated into the normal Actum Electronics business as a separate division. This allows for Actum to maintain the focus of Altico as an exclusive provider of ESD products and solutions whilst incorporating the ordering and administration into the normal Actum business.
Plans for 2006 and beyond
Part of the directors' plans is to expand the current Actum business by securing new supplier representation agreements with quality suppliers and to further pursue existing business opportunities of well established businesses. By concluding the exclusive representation for Schroff Electronics Packaging equipment and the purchase of Altico, the directors feel that 2005 was a good start in pursuing this strategy.
"We have a very clear plan for where we want to take this business and how we want to get there. The end result is that it all comes down to providing our clients with quality products and service. We want the Actum brand to be synonymous with quality - quality products and quality service," concludes Klaff.
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