Cosentry On Acquisition Roll, Buys Red Anvil To Continue Midwest Expansion

Less than a year after its last buy, Cosentry is on the move again with the acquisition of Milwaukee-based Red Anvil.

"It's an exciting day for Cosentry," CEO Brad Hokamp said.

The move is part of a strategic push by Omaha, Neb.-based Cosentry to expand its geographic reach into key Midwest markets, Hokamp said. The Red Anvil acquisition gives the company a presence in the Milwaukee region, reaching up through Northern Illinois and into the greater Wisconsin area. The company's January acquisition of XIOLINK was a similar move to push the company's reach into the St. Louis region.

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Red Anvil drew Cosentry's attention because of its growing customer base, strong talent and good capabilities from a cloud perspective, Hokamp said. Cosentry is still in the process of evaluating all of the capabilities Red Anvil brings to the table, but he said that it also brings disaster recovery, security and managed services capabilities to the portfolio.

The recent acquisition is part of a strong growth trajectory for Cosentry, which has seen 20 percent pro forma year-over-year growth. Hokamp said that he expects, with the Red Anvil acquisition, that the Milwaukee region will grow faster than the rest of the company.

Hokamp said that Cosentry's strategy is to look for major Midwest markets they feel are underserved by IT companies. They then seek out companies for acquisition that are already market leaders in their region, such as Red Anvil or XIOLINK.

He said that Milwaukee, in particular, was interesting as it had attractive business demographics, is similar to St. Louis and Kansas City from a business perspective, and is a top 50 Metropolitan Statistical Area, a U.S. ranking of major metropolitan areas in the country.

"[Milwaukee is] definitely an underserved market," Hokamp said. "We think we bring a lot of capabilities to the market."

Hokamp said that the markets in Milwaukee and the Midwest are similar to the rest of the industry, with trends toward cloud and outsourcing at an all-time high. However, he said that there is a shortage of local solution providers that are able to compete with the national ones in the region.

"We see in the markets we're competing in the Midwest, that customers are really looking for that local, trusted partner that can provide all their local requirements, but it's someone in the market that has a data center presence and technical skill set," Hokamp said. "That's what Cosentry really thrives in ... having the technical skills set and local knowledge to design, run and manage their environments."

XIOLINK fully completed its integration about four months ago, Hokamp said. With the acquisition of Red Anvil, Hokamp said that Cosentry will be looking to "aggressively grow the business" in the region. As for other acquisitions, Hokamp said that the company is "constantly looking but there's no definitive plans."

PUBLISHED OCT. 2, 2014