What attracted ADI to Herman?
CM: Pro AV was an area ADI was looking to grow and really brand ourselves in. Once we meet with David and Jeffrey, we quickly realized there was a lot of alignment and positive synergies. They brought with them not just expertise on the distribution side, but also an attractive services business from a subcontracting perspective.
We felt both inside our current av business and our core security practice, it was an opportunity to help our customers grow their business and really become a true value add to our customer partners. At the end of the day, this comes down to how we can best benefit our customers and supplier partners.
This acquisition leverages the best of both worlds — Herman’s brand, their expertise, their service business along with our (ADI’s) footprint, our scale, our digital areas of expertise. So, it really is a better together scenario. We really want to be an indispensable partner of choice to our customers and our supplier partners.
What Attracted Herman to ADI?
JW: It was immediately apparent for us, Jonathan, after our first meeting, that the organizations had very similar cultures. As you know, people and culture are the foundation of any business, and it was clear to us that our cultures were aligned.
ADI really exemplified the same underlying components that Herman had always thrived on — high energy, results-oriented, and fun. Ultimately, that translates to the customer and our shared common goal of delivering compelling value and benefits to our customers.
Why should Integrators be Excited and What can They Expect from This Combination of Herman and ADI Going Forward?
CM: Integrators should be excited by what we can bring to them in terms of growing their business and helping them identify additional areas of growth. Between both Herman and ADI, there is an opportunity to leverage our core business to Herman Customers, help them identify different ways to grow their current AV practice and vice versa for ADI. We bring 100+ locations to the industry. Our footprint right now is unparalleled in the space and that drives a lot of efficiencies and a lot of savings from an inventory perspective to an integrator.
I think also just the ability and ease of doing service. When you look at our digital capabilities and what we are doing to help service our customers, that really boils down to efficiencies. From our supplier partners, we offer a best in class line card. When you look across the categories and subcategories of the products that we provide, we really do provide the ability for a one-stop shop! One-stop shopping is a true value and a time saver for an integrator.
JW: Our purpose at Herman is empowering our customers to achieve more. Our combined customer is clearly the beneficiary of our organizations joining together. We are just now launching our first collaborative campaign, Bigger Better, and Stronger Together, which ultimately means delivering more value and more benefits to our customers as a combined organization. First and foremost, our combined line card is very compelling.
We can pretty much provide any product category that a customer needs to do a project, and It is much more efficient to source from one strategic supplier. Add that to ADI’s best in class capabilities and expansive distribution facility footprint and it enables us to provide more localized inventory closer to our customers along with reduced transit times, reduced freight costs, and an overall enhanced customer experience. Our goal ultimately is to be able to provide one-day service anywhere in the US which does not exist in our industry today.
On the labor side, ADI is very focused on scaling and growing that business to enhance our offerings, provide more skilled technicians out in the field, make it easy to engage with us and provide a better overall experience. Ultimately providing more value, more benefit and more cost savings for our customers to take advantage of and empower them to achieve more.
CM: It’s really about giving our customers access to more brands, access to more locations, access to education and access to engineering and labor resources and that allows them to be stickier with their customers and to say Yes to more projects. We can help them grow their share of wallet and their business as well.
