Nick Dixon buyout group swoops on Blueberry Wave

Former Lateral and DST boss Nick Dixon has struck the first deal for his investment and advisory business with the acquisition of Cirencester data-driven marketing agency Blueberry Wave for an undisclosed sum.
Dixon joined forces with his long-term business partner Rick Taylor to set up Veriteva in November 2104. According to the company blurb, the entrepreneurial group “assists clients to maximise their ROI for business critical and marketing communications, utilising a range of multi-channel disciplines with data and analytics at its core”.
Blueberry Wave was established in 2000 by Pamela Bath and Steve Schneekloth, to help clients to build their business by delivering strategic CRM, driven by, channel planning, data insight and analytics along with the deployment of customer communication campaigns in a multi-channel environment.
Bath said: “We were impressed with Veriteva’s vision and what Nick and Rick have created in the past. We view Veriteva as an excellent home for our business to embark upon it’s next stage of development and look forward to helping to create a multi disciplined group.”
Both Bath and Schneekloth retain a shareholding in the business, which unlike previous deals struck by Dixon and Taylor, is firmly in profit.
The duo first started working together in 1992, along with three other investors, on the acquisition of the main assets of Colorgraphic, which had fallen into administration. Within eight months the business had returned to profitability and was eventually flogged to Big Flower Inc in 2000.
They then did the same turnaroud job on Howitt, which became Lateral Group in 2008. The group was acquired by DST Systems Inc in 2011. The print operations were subsequently rebranded DST Output but are now up for sale, while the data division remains part of the group as DST Applied Analytics.
Dixon said: “We are delighted to be working with Pamela and Steve along with their talented management team to develop our strategy of offering clients a range of services from strategy, insight and campaign planning through to the omni channel deployment of campaigns.”