It helps to do the heavy lifting at the beginning.
That appears to be the case for Almo Pro A/V as it reflects on the ambitious integration of IAVI after it acquired the fellow distributor in May 2016 creating the largest privately held professional AV distributor and a $1.2 billion corporation.
The acquisition essentially happened in April and closed in May. “It was our goal when we closed the transaction in May to have [IAVI] on our computer system from day one,” said Almo Pro A/V executive VP Sam Taylor. “So it was a lot of hard work at the beginning bringing approximately 60 people into our new system.”
Sitting at an Almo Pro AV E4 AV Tour stop near Boston in September, however, Taylor was able review the benefits of the hard work. “Everything has been integrated and it’s running smoothly now. It’s actually exceeded expectations,” he says. “A lot of times with an acquisition you think 1 plus 1 is going to equal 1.9 because you have customers that aren’t happy or something with the transition. In this case 1 plus 1 is equaling 2 and a little bit above 2. We’ve basically continued the growth of both companies through the transition.”
Of course, turning around an E4 AV Tour event so quickly after such a significant acquisition provided some challenges, acknowledges VP of marketing Melody Craigmyle. With eight new vendors and double the Almo Pro A/V customers, the fall slate of events has become more robust.
Taylor and Craigmyle spoke to CI about the quick integration of IAVI and what to expect at the fall slate of Almo Pro A/V E4 AV Tour events which includes stops in Boston and Dallas:
