Chess moves for £11m turnover cyber security firm

Cheshire-based telecoms and ICT provider Chess has acquired award-winning cyber security provider Foursys.

Foursys was recently named Top UK Education Partner for Sophos and will add in excess of £11m of turnover, bringing Chess’ run rate to more than £120m.

Located in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, Foursys’ team of experts service customers across the UK and have 20 years’ experience delivering cyber security consultancy to public sector, SMB, corporate, and enterprise organisations.

Chess ICT already provides services including product supply and installation, storage, hosted and cloud solutions, managed services, networking infrastructure, professional services, business continuity, unified communications and systems management with this most recent addition being a perfect fit for Chess’ portfolio.

Chess founder and chief executive David Pollock said: “Cyber security is of upmost importance for any modern business.

“Foursys shares our passion for delivering technological advantage and importantly this acquisition enhances our security offering to our customers.

“Together with their expertise, we have the talent and technology needed to deliver truly integrated solutions across enterprise, mobile and cloud environments.”

Foursys managing director James Miller said: “The cultural, organisational and business fit of the two companies is perfect. I’m delighted that Chess see the acquisition of Foursys as such a key step on their growth journey. Being part of a much larger business brings new supplier choice, opportunities, expertise and skills in a wide range of ICT disciplines to our customers and partners”.

Richard Btesh, director of Chess, added “This acquisition shows other potential sellers in the Telecoms, Data and ICT sector that Chess remains the stand-out choice. We continue to diversify our product range by making strategic acquisitions of quality businesses”.

Johnathan Bartholomew, channel sales director Sophos, said: “Sophos is proud of our outstanding relationship with Foursys over the past 10 years of working together.

“We are thrilled with the announcement of the recent acquisition with the Chess Group, and see this as an opportunity for Foursys to continue to accelerate the growth they have seen with Sophos in previous years.

“Chess will provide Foursys with the platform to deliver the Sophos security solutions to even more organisations in the UK.”