Office closures follow Mistral's streamlining

ISP Mistral Internet has closed two of its UK offices

ISP Mistral Internet has closed two of its UK offices as it looks to restructure after a flood of new year acquisitions.

The firm acquired KeyBridge, Netkonect and Astra Associates in January, and also snapped-up Drakken in August 2003. Its Basingstoke and Cambridge offices, which were involved in the Netkonect and Drakken buys, will close and around 20 employees are expected to lose their current jobs.

Karl Robinson, managing director at Mistral, told CRN that Netkonect would no longer operate as a separate business unit, as Mistral is seeking to streamline its operations. “The two offices were gathered from our acquisitions and we could not justify them anymore.

“We are in the process of assessing job losses, and there are 26 roles at risk. We are going to consult the individuals with a view to reallocating some people so we can resource other areas of our business,” he said.

Robinson added that Mistral is also looking to expand its channel and build on its current reseller base.

“We have more than 100 resellers, which accounts for 15 to 20 per cent of our business, and we plan to launch a new channel recruitment programme.

“We hope the ISP market will remain a major sector, as we want to become a £22m business and offer new products,” Robinson added.

Andrew Henning, managing director at ISP partner Redweb, was unsurprised by the office closures.

“There is always going to be an overlap when acquisitions take place, but our commitment to Mistral is still solid. Service-wise there has been little change from the acquisitions, but it will offer greater resources in the technical data sector, which will enable a greater resource for customers,” he said.

Henning added that he was optimistic that Mistral can continue to gain share in the service side of the ISP sector.