Following on from the initial acquisition announcement of late 2021, Networks Unlimited has officially begun its operations as Exclusive Networks Africa.
The move, as part of Exclusive Networks’ newly expanded Middle East and Africa (MEA) region, is aligned with its strategy to drive value for local and global partners.
“We are very pleased to announce the final stage of the acquisition process in which Networks Unlimited, after some 27 years of independent operations, now formally becomes the African entity of a global company that is also listed on the Paris stock exchange, Euronext Paris,” says Anton Jacobsz, Exclusive Networks Africa MD.
“We firmly believe that this will create more opportunities for our vendor and reseller partners, as there is now wider access to our national markets, and also to a worldwide footprint that extends internationally throughout Asia-Pacific, North America and Europe, as well as the Middle East. As indicated previously, our channel partners will be able to benefit commercially from the global scale opportunities afforded to us being part of the worldwide Exclusive Networks organisation in a number of ways.
“Because Africa is seen as a growth market, it is thus widely recognised as an important investment destination, allowing for a strong focus on our vendors, both current as well as potential. We aim to take our existing vendors into new territories, while opportunities are also presenting for potential new vendors that will allow us to onboard new products.
“In addition, we are now able to extend our service offering through the Exclusive Networks distribution-as-a-service approach, allowing us to deliver everything we do as a service – with even our standard service offering going far beyond operations, warehousing and invoicing. These premium services will create even greater value for our existing and future partners.”
Jacobsz says Exclusive Networks Africa is now able to offer a degree of specialisation, as well as a degree of reach, that did not exist previously.
“I believe our offering is now unmatched locally,” he says. “The Exclusive Networks Africa services business is vastly expanded, and is a very strong enabler for territories where partners are unable to invest heavily in their own resources. We offer access to 43 countries on the continent where we have the footprint, and the ability, to be the partner of choice in taking away the burden of administrative issues such as import functionality, handling of VAT, service operations and so on.
“Our footprint across the continent can relieve a great deal of business pressure. We are also able to offer training across all our products, and have highly skilled engineering resources throughout the region to assist with global implementations.”
Jacobsz notes that the Love Trust, Exclusive Networks Africa’s broad-based black economic empowerment (B-BBEE) partner in South Africa, remains as a shareholder in the company.
“This means that, as Exclusive Networks Africa, we remain a Level One B-BBEE company,” he adds.