30.07.2007

National Wizard

The Lavendon group has, as expected, announced the integration of Wizard Workspace into its Nationwide Access business.

Unlike the regional businesses that Lavendon has acquired over the past 18 months Wizard followed the same national business model as Nationwide with a total overlap in outlets and product offering.

The Wizard name also has none of the following of the strong brands that Lavendon has acquired with its regional business. The company was originally called Independent Access Supplies and then renamed Wizard after a lengthy transition period following its buy out from the administrator.
[[link: http://www.vertikal.net/en/stories.php?id=4075]]
See Wizard goes to Lavendon[[link]]
Lavendon UK said that it is following a two legged strategy in the UK with one leg being its national model operated by Nationwide and its other being the regional and specialist businesses which are all managed independently with strong local identities and customer bases.

Wizard clearly belongs to the national model and will benefit, says the company, from being integrated into Nationwide. The Wizard locations totally overlap with those of Nationwide so there will be closures, but these will simply involve the selection of the best depot in each location, with no planned layoffs.

Wizard has a fleet of around 1,300 units which will boost the Nationwide fleet, already the largest, to around 7,000 machines.

Vertikal Comment

No great surprise here, the question was not if but when.

It makes perfect sense for Lavendon to make this move sooner rather than later, to begin benefiting from the costs savings sooner, while letting Wizard employees know where they stand for the long term. There was nothing to be gained by dragging out the inevitable.

It is still likely to take several months to sort out the depot closures etc.. thus getting it all sorted out before the start of the next financial year.