Cellnet heads into SA with HiTech acquisition

Cellnet Group has broadened its product and geographic spread through the acquisition of South Australian distributor HiTech Distribution, for an undisclosed sum.

In an ASX statement Cellnet MD Adam Davenport (pictured) said the acquisition provided a strategic expansion of both Cellnet’s national footprint and IT market presence.

“South Australia is a similar market to Queensland as it features a large regional area with a lot of small to medium sized clients. The acquisition allows us to significantly grow our volumes there," he said.

Rumours of the acquisition have been floating about the channel for the past week.

CRN spoke exclusively to Vince Mazzio, operations manager at HiTech earlier this week.

While he was tight lipped about HiTech selling up, he did confirm that a cultural fit was a necessary prerequisite for any sale of the business.

There are few distributors in South Australia, and its warehouse and service centre made HiTech a very attractive buy for a larger organisation, Mazzio said.

“It’s a tough industry and anyone that buys us needs to try and keep our company culture. I don’t think we would survive if we don’t retain our approach to customer service. We certainly do things differently then the Eastern states,” he said.

HiTech has been distributing software, hardware, peripherals and services to SA and Victorian resellers for the past 14 years.

Its product portfolio includes brands like Acer, Belkin, Epson, Lexmark, Microsoft, MYOB, NEC, Samsung and Symantec.