Fused blown as Griffin swoops for assets

THE Fused Group, the Manchester-based business which provided digital telephony and data hosting services to corporate clients, has been placed into administration.

A spokesman for insolvency form MCR confirmed that both the Fused Group and subsidiary firm Fused Networks were placed into administration on October 13, with Steve Clancy and David Whitehouse being appointed as joint administrators.

He also confirmed that the trade and assets of both businesses were sold to Octium Ltd, which is the parent company of Derby-based Griffin Internet.

Fused was formed in January 2007 when the directors of Telecomplete completed a buy-in/management buy-out of the company from its former American parent.

More than 90% of the shares were in the hands of three of its directors – chief operating officer Mark Salvin and colleagues Phil Knight and Nelson Woolton.

It achieved revenues of £2m in its first year of trading under new management, and by the time it acquired Surrey-based Smart Devices – a manufacturer of rugged laptops – in December 2008 it claimed revenues of £4.7m and 20 staff.

It also relocated from a base in Manchester Science Park into new premises in the Knott Mill area of the city.

Griffin told TheBusinessDesk.com that it had taken on former Fused staff, but it declined to say how many.

A spokeswoman was also unable to give any indication whether it would retain a presence in Manchester of if staff would have to relocate to Derby.

A statement by Griffin Internet’s managing director, Andrew Dickinson, said: “I would personally like to welcome customers and staff of Fused to Griffin.

“Fused have a fantastic reputation in the channel, they have won many accolades over the years and we are delighted with this acquisition.

“We have a lot of experience with migrating partners and end users between networks and we anticipate the minimum of disruption as customers are integrated into the Griffin infrastructure.”