New Age Upbeat On Synnex Deal

By Colleen Bohen -- TWICE, 4/21/2008

CARSON, CALIF. — New Age Electronics president Adam Carroll is optimistic about the outlook for his company and its customers following its recent acquisition by Synnex.

"From our perspective, it's an opportunity to take what we already do, what works today, and make it better," Carroll told TWICE.

The consumer electronics distributor was acquired for approximately $54 million by Synnex, which describes itself as a "business process service company." New Age is now functioning as a division of Synnex following the close. Carroll and his colleagues sales senior VP Fred Towns and marketing senior VP Gary Palenbaum will continue to lead the organization.

According to Carroll, the deal should work to both the company and its customers' advantage because it is increasing New Age's access to resources that can help it run its business more smoothly. In particular, Carroll noted that New Age now has access to triple the warehouse locations it had before the deal, which he expects will help New Age provide some products at lower cost due to potentially decreased freight and shipping charges. He also said it will allow the company to "diversify offerings closer to market. Speed is everything, right?"

Carroll said that New Age has worked hard with Synnex leading up to the closing of the deal to ensure that the initial transition period is smooth for customers. "From a transactional perspective, the customer facing will remain the same," he said, noting that the company will instead "pick up a lot of efficiency on the back end."

This is not to say that customers may not eventually notice some changes. Carroll said that going forward he expects the company to implement some new programs and tools under Synnex that it hadn't been capable of before. He mentioned a new consignment program, the possibility of carrying some specific brands for specific customers upon request and an expected improvement in the company's Web tools.

"I expect to see tremendous improvements in our e-commerce offering by leveraging the IT support Synnex has available," he said. Carroll mentioned that there has already been discussion of adding new Web features like "live chat and other concierge services … within the first 90 days."

In all, said Carroll, "Things are moving quite well. We're very excited. We feel like we're all one today already."

As for the timing of such a deal, particularly in context with the larger macroeconomic concerns shared by many across most industries at the moment, Carroll didn't appear too worried. "We have both proven we can succeed in the most difficult times," he said, adding that he felt the pair could work together to maintain growth with "competitive pricing."

And he noted, "We're concerned like everyone else, but we think we have the best offering out there to help our customers to continue to grow.