Olive gets its Wish as top Vodafone partners join forces

Enlarged firm claims it is one of the UK's top comms providers with £25m run-rate sales following ninth acquisition in two years

VAR and services player Olive Communications claims it is now one of the UK's leading managed comms specialists after acquiring fellow top-level Vodafone partner Wish Communications.

The deal, agreed for an undisclosed sum, was announced today and takes effect immediately. The buyout is Olive's ninth acquisition in the past two years, and the High Wycombe-based firm claims the addition of Wish will take its annual revenue past £25m.

Two of the Northamptonshire firm's management team will take on senior roles at the new company, with managing director Mike Hallam appointed as chief operating officer, and operations director Simon Pickering taking the post of professional services director. Both will be shareholders in the newly enlarged business.

Olive chief executive Martin Flick said: "This powerful alignment of Vodafone Platinum Partners delivers benefits beyond the sum of its parts. The united team brings together leaders in their respective fields."

Rob Mukherjee, head of Vodafone Partner Services, added: "This is an exciting acquisition within the Vodafone Platinum Partner community. As we continue to strengthen our position in the total communications market, our hope is that partners develop their own capability in line with our plans and in making this acquisition Olive are demonstrating their commitment to our long-term strategy."

Founded in 2003, Olive recently featured on the Tech Track list of the UK's 100 fastest-growing technology companies, with annualised revenue growth of 43.4 per cent over the past three years. Sales in 2013 stood at £11.9m.

The company claims to serve 65,000 subscribers to its services across a customer base of 2,500 clients. Wish reportedly brings with it another 45,000 users spread over 3,500 customers.