EDINBURGH digital marketing business Ambergreen has been acquired by DAC Group for a multi-million pound sum as the North American group makes its first moves into the Europe markets.

Ambergreen, which was founded by chief executive Tino Nombro and technical director Grant Whiteside in 2001, offers a range services that help clients such as Hotel Chocolat and PricewaterhouseCoopers market themselves in the online and digital space.

Mr Nombro said the business had decided to go ahead with the DAC Group deal as it will broaden the offering Ambergreen can take to its clients.

“They approached us about a year ago and we’d been going through some transition in terms of improving the breadth of our services around analytics, content and paid media,” he said.

“When they approached us we thought we were too busy to think about it but what we liked about them is that they have some unique technology that will allow us to compete in the local space – it gets difficult for companies with a lot of offices or shops to manage their local [online] presence.”

Ambergreen is the DAC Group’s first European acquisition but the company, which is headquartered in Toronto and has six offices across North America, is planning further expansion in the near future. It is anticipated that it will announce a deal on mainland Europe by the end of this year.

Norm Hagarty, chief executive and managing partner of DAC Group, said: “Our primary focus at DAC Group is helping national brands, who have a distributed sales network of stores or locations and where sales at the regional or local level are critical to success, build an effective presence to drive results. As we expand internationally we want to partner with agencies who deeply understand and appreciate that philosophy.”

Mr Nombro said the scale of DAC Group in comparison to Ambergreen was part of the business’s attraction.

“We liked the fact that as part of a bigger group we’ll have more client support and resources,” he said.

“We’ve been in the sector for 15 years and we felt like it was a good time to be part of a bigger outfit.”

Both Mr Nombro and Mr Hagarty spoke of the “cultural fit” between the firms that made them press ahead with the deal.

“We have been talking to Ambergreen for some time and very much respect the work they do for their clients and the talent they continue to develop as an agency,” Mr Hagarty said.

“The cultural fit for both businesses was the winning piece of the jigsaw.”

Mr Nombro added: “We felt they were really like us but bigger.”

While the deal has gone live already Ambergreen will continue to operate under its own brand for the time being with the eventual aim of coming under the DAC Group banner in future.

“We’ll stay as Ambergreen for the next year but will adopt more of a group look and feel,” Mr Nombro said.

“We’ll gradually alter the brand. DAC is much better known in the US than here so we’ll stay as Ambergreen for now.”