Stone redirects acquisition funding
Ambitious firm hopes recent Buying Solutions win will help it hit growth targets
Stone's new Granite One Hundred facility allows Stone to assemble 500,000 units a year
VAR and system builder Stone Group is banking on Buying Solutions to help it reach its £150m turnover goal after all but ditching its acquisition ambitions.
Chief executive James Bird said Stone has poached 30 extra sales, administration and bid-writing staff from competitors since making the cut for the £6bn commodity IT framework in March.
Although niche acquisitions are still possible, Bird said the big-ticket deals planned at the time of its 2008 buyout by RJD Capital is now off the agenda due to a lack of suitable targets.
“Buying Solutions is an essential part of our growth strategy. We have several million in acquisition funding available to us, but some of that will be switched into coping with growth,” he said.
“But we need to move quickly. Public sector customers are loyal and the churn and opportunities will exist in the first six months.”
Stone expects 2010 revenues to grow from £72.5m to £99.4m and is targeting a £150m haul by 2012. Its new Granite One Hundred site more than trebles its capacity to 500 million units.
Stone netted the highest mark on the desktop hardware Lot and Bird said the weighting attached to this would allow it to snag Buying Solutions deals against cheaper competitors.
He singled out NHS trusts and local authorities as key target customers, particularly those aligned with former Buying Solutions heavyweights who missed the cut such as HP, XMA and Centerprise.
Christine Harrison, UK and Ireland channel manager at Stone partner Intel, said: “Stone has put a lot of investment in during a high-risk period and that is starting to pay off."