6 Thing to Know About AVI-SPL Acquisition of Sharp's Audio Visual

“We have been thinking globally for years. It’s a mindset, not just an execution. We like that aspect of it.”

Meanwhile, Faber isn’t looking back. “One of the challenges of an organization like that [GPA] that I think is now eliminated for us is working globally with other organizations does create some revenue challenges,” he said.

“It’s a great idea and it worked pretty well, but we can deliver globally with this AVI-SPL acquisition. We just think it’s a much better way to attack with one complete organization, one playbook.”

AVI-SPL Inches Closer to Becoming the first $1B AV Integrator

When you consider that AVI-SPL forecasted $720 million in 2017 revenue for CI’s Fast-Growing Firms coverage and that Sharp’s predicted $53 million in the same report, well, it seems likely that AVI-SPL will finish 2017 with over three quarters of a billion dollars of revenue.

“When we talk as a management team and when we talk as an organization we do have the aspirational goal of reaching $1 billion,” says AVI-SPL’s Zettel.

Consider that since AVI-SPL was acquired itself by global private equity firm H.I.G. Capital, which manages more than $19 billion equity capital, the integration firm has been extremely aggressive with growth strategies.

Noteworthy moves include:

It all adds up to the $1 billion revenue milestone being increasingly realistic.

Zettel is honest about that fact that, in some ways, the goal of reaching $1 billion revenue is important to AVI-SPL.

“The truth is that there are always report cards in life and there are always goals established in life. When we talk as a management team and when we talk as an organization we do have the aspirational goal of reaching $1 billion,” he said, before quickly adding a caveat.

Reaching $1 billion revenue, he said, would be less about the big number itself and more about what it would represent – a billion little victories and the sum of the parts equaling cumulative success.

Why Sharp’s Audio Visual Was Open to Being Acquired

Just three months ago, Sharp’s was featured on Commercial Integrator’s list of 10 fast-growing integration firms. In the coverage CI cited the $50 million firm’s profitability.

Sharp’s Audio Visual has grown its probability in ways that by doing some things that most integration firms have found challenging. It’s an AV integration firm that is effectively playing in the IT market, so to speak.

As a Global Presence Alliance member it has become the No. 1 Microsoft Surface Hub authorized reseller in Canada. Meanwhile, it has built up its in-house IT expertise to create a comfort level selling to its customers’ tech decision-making IT professionals. The kicker, of course, is that as a result of all of this it’s able to sell more service —profitably.

So why sell? It wasn’t without some trepidation, Faber acknowledges.

The prolific consolidation happing in the integration industry is obvious. Sharp’s Audio Visual has been among the many firms in the give-or-take $50 million revenue range that has been sought by investors. “I’ve been approached millions of times by different investment bankers,” Faber quipped.

He said it was after being approached around January 2017 by an investor that he actually “felt like I can work with and trust” that he really started to think about it. “It was about timing and opportunity and providing a much better customer experience for our customers that we simply couldn’t do on our own as a smaller organization.”

It was also about providing a better employment opportunity, he said. “Again, as a smaller organization we simply couldn’t provide things that a much larger organization could provide.”

Future of Sharp’s Audio Visual Employees, Executives

The bottom line when it comes to how AVI-SPL, which already had four locations in Canada, acquiring Sharp’s AV and its eight Canadian locations will affect employees is that it’s too soon to tell.

There are some redundancies when it comes to regions serviced with physical locations. However, it’s “way too early to even opine about that,” Faber said.

We do know that AVI-SPL Canada will be set up in two regions: Eastern Canada and Western Canada. Koechlin will oversee the Eastern region and Faber will take the Western region. However, that management strategy doesn’t create separate entities. “We’ll make sure we have one AVI-SPL Canada,” Koechlin said.

Otherwise, and for AVI-SPL Canada and former Sharp’s Audio Visual employees, Faber said, “it’s business as usual and customer focused.”