Air IT said these transactions have enabled it to double its size, extended its reach into London and the West Midlands, and brought it closer to its goal of becoming the UK’s largest SME-focused cloud managed services provider.
The company delivers fully converged IT solutions, managed support, comms, cyber security, digital transformation, cloud, and business intelligence solutions. Air IT said that combining these capabilities with those of Netstar and Microtrading will bring benefits of scale, additional technical expertise, and broader geographic reach.
John Whitty, CEO of Air IT (pictured), explained, “Since the investment and commitment made by August Equity Partners to back our growth strategy, the team have been hunting for solid businesses who share our dedication and ability to serve the SME market. We are delighted to have found these, despite the recent pandemic, with Netstar and Microtrading who are both extremely capable, successful, and exciting businesses with very talented teams, which will result in the doubling of staff to 140 people.
“Like Air IT, they are both famous for delivering excellent service whilst also sharing our strong cultural values. The inclusion of their teams will provide additional depth and expertise to support the innovative and business enhancing services provided to our customers. These acquisitions represent the first step towards achieving both our organic and acquisitive goals which is supported by a strong and mature pipeline of similar deals.”
Mit Patel, managing director and founder of Netstar, said, “We are delighted to join the Air IT group. Netstar has consistently invested in our people, systems, processes and product portfolio and we will continue to provide excellent service and strategic technology advice to our customers. Our clients will now further benefit from a broader service portfolio, including Cyber and Business Intelligence (BI) Solutions.”
Andy Penlington, who is joint managing director of Microtrading (alongside Neil Marlowe), added, “We have spent almost 40 years developing and growing our business into a successful and agile organisation, and the time is right to take the next step and allow our customers to benefit from our significant joint capability and technical investment. We are all very pleased that the Air IT values and culture are extremely close to those already present within Microtrading, which will make the integration of the businesses so much easier.”