Technology Group gets Nerdy

Need a Nerd chief Wray Wilson (left) and NZ Technology Group chief Wayne Baird are now with the same company. Photo/Paul Taylor

Hawke's Bay company Need a Nerd has become part of the New Zealand Technology Group.

Technology Group chief executive Wayne Baird says the deal, from May 1, will result in one of the largest ICT networks in the country.

National franchise business Need a Nerd was started in 2004 by the Dunkerley family and owned by former pharmacist and Hawke's Bay District Health Board member Peter Dunkerley.

Mr Baird said Need a Nerd's nationwide network fitted well with Technology Group's ambition to be present in all regions. Need a Nerd has grown from a single Hawke's Bay office to 11 nationally and 10 third-party supply locations. It has a database of 50,000 customers both commercial and residential.

"What Need a Nerd brings is another market segment for New Zealand Technology Group," Mr Baird said.

"They have nationwide coverage, very good people, and a well-known brand that can only be enhanced by the merger.

"They add value to what we're already trying to do - they fit with our strategy of opening up into the regions and building strong relationships with local people."

Mr Dunkerley will remain a Need a Nerd director and said joining with Technology Group was about industry rationalisation: "taking all the little guys and rolling them into one to be a more efficient and effective company".

"The future is exciting. There are some very good staff that New Zealand Technology Group will inherit. Teams of people working to their optimum skill level will achieve great things."

Need a Nerd chief executive Wray Wilson remains at the helm he has managed since 2007.

"Although Need a Nerd has a strong national presence we have huge potential to grow," Wilson said.

"By joining New Zealand Technology Group we get the benefits that scale brings - better purchasing power, much improved systems, access to a very comprehensive set of products and a huge depth of experience and capability that we will also be able to offer," he said.

"The merger will also provide a much higher level of support to our franchisees and the future is certainly bright for all involved."

Mr Baird said synergies were already presenting themselves as Technology Group became a one-stop-shop "not through one company trying to deal with everyone - we are specialised companies working together very well".

It is not the first Hawke's Bay company to join Technology Group, with Big Noise Group and Data Hive already in the Auckland-based company's Napier fold.

"A lot of our people are working out of Hawke's Bay," Mr Baird said.

Technology Group has aggregated 30 ICT businesses since it was founded in 1998.