Xeretec recently completed the acquisition of First Copy, helping to boost an already good year for the company, which is reaping the benefits of diversifying its product offering and helping customers to achieve sustainability targets.
Back in 1991, and within days of each other, Xeretec and First Copy were established. Both went on to forge good reputations within the print sectors, and both successfully operated as Xerox concessionaires. Fast forward 34 years, and the companies have come together, with Wokingham-based Xeretec recently acquiring First Copy as part of its growth strategy.
When the opportunity to acquire First Copy came up, it immediately interested Xeretec, says David Smith, Xeretec’s group marketing director. “First Copy’s main market is in East Anglia, which is a greenfield site for us and they are a Xerox concessionaire too, as well as having strength in production print,” he explains. “They are a great fit for Xeretec, with not only mutual value add but also we deliver financial strength to the First Copy customer base, which in a tough industry is important. Additionally, the customer base would have instant access to the wider Xeretec solution portfolio.
“It felt like a win-win for both companies and Xerox too. Acquisitions are never simple, but in terms of culture, style, understanding, learning, value add, it just made sense, so we proceeded.”
David says the deal came together relatively quickly, helped by the willingness on both sides to complete the deal.
“First Copy is blessed with a loyal customer base especially in production print, so for us to consolidate our presence with them means we can offer so much more to them to help with their broader IT requirements,” he adds.
Post-deal, First Copy is keeping its well-established name and branding, with a slight tweak – it is now First Copy IT Ltd. The existing management team and staff also remain in place, helping to maintain consistency for its customers and well-developed local presence.
“Where we can add value with scale, support and technology, we’ll do that,” says David. “They are a separate legal entity, wholly owned by Xeretec, but managed by their existing team. We provide additional value through Group functions such as a larger marketing operation and increased analysts and specialist technology support. This includes the National Help Desk in Aberdeen. It’s important to us that they retain their local identity and reputation, and they will continue to operate as a Xerox concessionaire in their own right.”
For First Copy customers, it is business as usual and the only difference they should notice is the slight change in name, David says. “It’s hopefully completely seamless,” he adds. “The idea was to try and make that transition almost invisible to the customer base. What they will see is access to a broadened portfolio of technology outside print, but they’ll continue to have all the support that they would expect from the business.
“It is early days, but we’ve seen some good successes with the team there already. Hopefully, their customers will get greater value from the adjacent technologies and other IT solutions they can now offer.”
Diversification benefits
Away from the acquisition, 2025 has been a good year for Xeretec so far, with several big contract wins outside of its traditional print heartland helping to provide organic growth. Xeretec has consciously diversified its product mix into wider IT managed services over the past eight years, and this policy is bearing fruit.
David says Xeretec has built its portfolio and expertise in recent years in PC and related services, as well as software, cybersecurity and lifecycle services. “They are difficult markets to break into, and you have to work at it for some time and develop a reputation in those markets,” he says. “You must have people that understand the market and change your processes and systems, which is what we’ve done over the past eight years. We’re now comfortable with who we’ve got, what we offer, and are accelerating our penetration into new business.
“Alongside that our print business is going from strength to strength and we have won some big contracts recently.”
Print trends
David adds that a trend in the print sector this year has been for customers to look at what next to do with their print fleet, including consolidation, upgrading and cost optimisation, as well exploring how to improve the environmental performance and lower the carbon footprint. “We’ve had to fight harder to retain customers, as the market is really competitive, but I think it’s kept us on our metal,” he says. “We’ve been successful in achieving that and seen good growth.”
Another prevalent tend has been the migration to management through the cloud. “Pretty much everybody wants a cloud function and a serverless environment,” says David. “That’s been a big driver for customers, whether they’re looking to deploy that on an existing fleet, unify a multi-brand print fleet across a common cloud platform or replacing equipment and getting an integrated cloud solution that gives them control at the same time.”
But alongside this has been a focus on costs, which Xeretec have been striving to provide. “Customers want great products, but they don’t want to pay premium prices,” he says. “But they also value that complete lifecycle management and they want comfort of knowing that if something goes wrong, we’ll fix it. They want to take the pain away and just have it work.
“The market is very price sensitive, but they want a managed solution too. It is hard to find a good balance between the two, but it is something we manage to achieve.”
Sustainability priority
As mentioned, sustainability continues to be a priority for customers. To this end, Xeretec recently received an EcoVadis Bronze Medal, which puts the company in the top 35% of companies evaluated globally. Criteria for this include environment, ethics, labour and human rights.
The award can give customers confidence that Xeretec is working towards its own sustainability goals, something needed as the topic crops up in every large engagement that the company has, according to David. “This is particularly the case around print, for new and existing customers,” he adds. “We’ve done so much work to help customers understand what’s the optimum sustainable solution moving forward.
“We help customers understand the true impact of adopting a product, and not just whilst it is operated. For example, while the use and maintenance of a colour MFP printer typically account for only 15-18% of its total environmental impact, that’s just a small part of the story.
“The bigger picture includes factors like raw material sourcing, production, shipping and eventual retirement. By looking at the entire product lifecycle, we can help customers make informed decisions about the most sustainable and cost-effective path forward.”
“We try to ensure that everything we put into the market is optimised for the customer. When looking at new products, customers want to know about things like the total energy consumption, what the Energy Star TEC rating is, and if it’s going to be less than the ones that are being replaced. We come armed with a deep understanding of the marketplace, and provide that end-to-end lifecycle picture of the technology, whilst helping customers see the bigger picture.
“We are aware that as technology is replaced, such as PC refreshes for Windows 11, there is an opportunity to turn this into a force for good, rather than a burden. We have new business engagements where we help customers responsibly dispose of their old technology via a secure, certified programme. Here it is repurposed for a second life wherever possible or recycled. For many organisations supporting causes through charitable donations makes a material difference to their ESG manifestos. In many cases customers also see a monetary value returned. This is an initiative we’ve been working hard to perfect.”
Future
Looking to the future, the focus for Xeretec is on continued growth. David says the company is working hard to retain its existing print customers, as well as seeking out new business – and this is where Xeretec’s range of services gives them an advantage.
“We want to massively scale our PC services business,” he adds. “That’s everything from buying PCs – very pertinent with Windows 11 switchover coming up in terms of the product refresh rate – through to helping them with complete lifecycle services. We’ve also investing significantly in building assets and services including software and cybersecurity.
“In the next 12 months, we intend to strengthen our non-print business and make that much bigger. We think that the software and cybersecurity space is a very competitive market, but it’s a very big market so the plan is to keep growing those parts of the business. To this end, we’ve increased our sales and technical teams organically, as well as those people who joined us in the First Copy acquisition.”
This growth will be alongside continued development of its print products and services, both Xeretec and First Copy, alongside their work as Xerox concessionaires.
While organic growth is a focus, if an opportunity for an acquisition presents itself, then they will look at that too, as there is expected to be more consolidation in the sector, David says.
This article first appeared in Print in the Channel magazine issue#30.
