Chess seals 14th deal of the year
CHESS, the privately-owned independent telecoms company, is continuing its aggressive acquisitions strategy with a swoop for Lincolnshire firm.
The Alderley-Edge company, which in the year to the end of April grew turnover 12% to £32.7m, said its purchase of Directory Business Services, which specialises in providing businesses with non-geographic telephone numbers, would add £1m to annual turnover.
The acquisition is the 14th Chess has made this year after it sealed a £21m
funding package to support its growth from Barclays.
DBS will bring 2,800 customers and its online ordering system and websites to Chess. DBS will continue to trade as a web services and online marketing company.
Richard Btesh, director at Chess, said: “This acquisition gives us a great cross-selling opportunity to provide our new customers with a suite of products to help improve their business communications.”
David Clarke, of DBS, added: “Chess have built a reputation as acquisition experts and that title is well deserved. I’ve been hugely impressed by the level of professionalism at every level and at each stage of the acquisition process and am confident our customers will receive an exceptional level of service with Chess.”
Chess now employs more than 143 staff, up from around 120 staff in 2010.
As well as acquisitions, cross-selling additional services to its 20,000-plus customers has been a key driver of Chess’ growth.
In the year to the end of April its ebitda rose 34% to £7.1m and profits by 31% from £3.5m to £4.6m.
