ANS invests in online postal service

MANCHESTER-based IT specialist ANS Group has invested in a company that allows people to send “physical” post from their computers.

ANS has subscribed to £250,000 of loan notes convertible into shares in London-based ViaPost. It said it may inject more cash at a later date.

ViaPost allows users to send confidential physical post to any address in the UK from a computer. Documents are sent to a ViaPost centre close to the final destination where they are printed and handed to the postal service for the final leg. ViaPost is a new business that started trading last year.

Plus-listed ANS provides telecoms, data storage and IT consultancy services to business and the public sector.

In the year to March pre-tax profit at the business rose 1.5% to £1.4m on turnover of £12.4m, up 20%.