Active Voice and Data Ready to Roll Out Expansion Plans
The Active Voice & Data product portfolio offers a one stop shop for high end telephony and network services. It was incorporated in 2001 as a new start company with no previous trading record, and was founded by the current Director Mr Iain Simpson.
Iain had had an illustrious career in the sector but wished to start and grow his own company. He sought business support from the then Business Link of South Yorkshire and benefitted from one-to-one coaching under the High Growth Start Up (HGSU) programme.
Iain explains. ”My one-to-one coach was Dr David Clayton who helped me agree my strategies for growth, and formulate a business plan including a 3 year financial forecast to secure funding from my bank. The HGSU gave me a firm base from which to grow my business and business coaching was to hand.” As the business grew Iain has had ongoing support from Enterprising Barnsley and now employs 15 staff and sales forecasts to exceed £1million. Iain believes, ”I have developed a number of industry USP’s and exclusive deals which have underpinned my growth to be one of the foremost telephony business solution and network service providers in the region and operate a customer base throughout the UK.”
Starting from a clean sheet Iain states, “ I now have a customer base of over 300 companies hroughout the UK and a unique relationship with Voxtron and Siemens to support our future
growth.”
The company has continued to increase sales and margins despite the recessive economy and are now engaging with Enterprising Barnsley to address future growth plans. Iain is in acquisition mode and states, “ we have had a succession of trading results that have improved year on year and our organic growth will continue. However, there are many opportunities in the market and our plans are to formulate a strategy to grow by acquisition. We have engaged again with Enterprising Barnsley and Enterprise Coach Dr David Clayton to support us through our proposals.”
Through the coaching support of Enterprising Barnsley some initial intense discussions provided a global assessment of each company’s financial obligations of the proposed acquisition and rule of thumb valuations. Presentation to the company’s bankers provided ongoing support of Active and a number of meetings with potential funders provide the
foundation of a firm proposition for the purchase and a way forward for the negotiations. Heads of terms have been drafted and a target for closing the deal is September 2010. This will create new jobs and a robust base for future expansion.
For the full range of Enterprising Barnsley support please visit www.enterprisingbarnsley.co.uk or contact Barnsley Development Agency 01226 787538 for more details.
The £4.7m Enterprising Barnsley programme is funded by £2.89m from the European Regional Development Fund, £739,000 from Yorkshire Forward, and other funding sources.