£10m in sight for ITS Technology Group
A FAST-GROWING Cheshire IT infrastucture and services company is set to hit £10m turnover and make a profit after less than two years of trading.
Launched in 2014 by chief executive Roy Shelton, who has 20 years’ experience in the IT and telecoms sector, ITS Technology Group, is based at The Heath Business Park, Runcorn.
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In the year to December 31 2014 its revenues (representing around eight months of trading) were £200,000. This year it predicts revenues of £10m and a net profits of around £1.2m.
Without taking on any external funding, it has built a team of 55 people, amassed an order book of £17m and made four acquisitions – the most recent being the assets of Konek-T, an insolvent broadband network provider serving rural communities across South Wales.
Shelton, who estimates his family and the family of chairman Paul Ruocco have invested around £750,000 into the business, says he is pleased with progress so far.
“We hope to take on more people this year and have not ruled out further acquisitions.”
He said the business, which is a major regional supplier to the Government’s SuperConnected Cities Project, was open to the possibility of partnering with a private equity or venture capital firm to drive further growth.
“We have funded everything ourselves and basically put our families’ lives on the line for ITS and it’s paying off. We are ambitious and while we don’t need to take on private equity or VC at the moment, it does not mean we would rule it out in the future.”
He said ITS’ business model of offering managed IT services and VOIP to small business customers mean that there are more strings to its bow than offering network infrastructure to consumers and wholesale clients.
ITS’ recent milestones include being ranked one on the Government’s Greater Manchester Broadband Delivery UK league table. It has connected more than 1,100 SMEs using Government’s superfast broadband voucher scheme
The company is also a leading provider in Coventry, Derby, Knowsley, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Sheffield and York, and is about to launch in the North East.
The scheme operating in Greater Manchester covers Manchester, Salford, Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Wigan and part of Cheshire East.
