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Carmel-based enVista, a supply-chain and enterprise technology consulting firm, says it plans to establish a presence in the Asia/Pacific region by investing in a New Zealand-based consulting firm.
EnVista did not disclose the amount of its investment.
EnVista co-founder and CEO Jim Barnes said the firm will invest in Auckland, New Zealand-based iWMS, which offers warehouse management and supply-chain services such as consulting and software implementation and integration. The company’s name stands for integrated workplace management system.
The deal has not yet closed, Barnes said, but once it does, enVista will be a 30% owner of iWMS. The New Zealand company will do business under the enVista name.
EnVista has about 285 employees, including 60 based in Carmel. The company also has concentrations of employees in suburban Chicago, where the company has its automation and robotics lab; and in Hyderabad, India, where about 25 employees focus on technical development and support.
IWMS has 15 employees.
Most of enVista’s current customers are based in North America, Barnes said, and the iWMS investment will set the stage for picking up new customers in places like New Zealand, Australia, Malaysia and Singapore.
“We are wanting to take what we do today in North America and expand it into Southeast Asia,” Barnes said.
EnVista offers consulting, technology integration and other services that help companies integrate their physical and digital operations. The company can, for instance, help a warehouse operator figure out the best way to automate its operations and the best technology to use. Or it can help a manufacturer make its supply chain more efficient.
EnVista has customers in a variety of industries, including retail, food and beverage, manufacturing and logistics. Its target customers are mid-market companies: Those large and complex enough to need what enVista offers, but not so large that they can handle those needs in-house.
The Asia/Pacific region is an attractive target for enVista, Barnes said, because many companies based in that part of the world fit into that mid-market category.
Establishing a presence in New Zealand also has other advantages for enVista, Barnes said.
Foreign currency exchange rates make New Zealand a lower-cost place to do business, Barnes said, and the time-zone difference between New Zealand and the U.S. means that enVista will be able to provide round-the-clock customer support.
Under the current exchange rate, one U.S. dollar equals $1.69 in New Zealand dollars.
IWMS’s employees also have some areas of expertise that enVista does not have, Barnes said, and by investing in iWMS, enVista will now have access to that expertise.
EnVista has been through some significant changes in recent years. The privately held company, which had grown to 850 employees, sold off the software portion of its business to Germany-based Korber in 2022, and 400 of the company’s employees, including Barnes, shifted over to Korber as part of that deal.
Barnes returned to enVista early last year after his enVista co-founder, John Stitz, retired.
Then, in July of last year, a business dispute between the co-founders ended up in court. That case is pending in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis.
Barnes said enVista is back in growth mode, and the iWMS investment is the first of what will likely be multiple other investments over the next 12 to 18 months.
“EnVista’s got its mojo back,” Barnes said.
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