ANS Group open to transformational acquisition

CEO reveals £50m-turnover VAR could look to buy a similar-sized company

ANS Group is open to making a transformational acquisition as it mulls options to continue its growth trajectory.

In its 2014 fiscal year the Mancunian VAR increased pre-tax profits 30 per cent to £4m on turnover which spiked eight per cent to £47.7m. The firm shares the same 31 March year-end date as government bodies, and chief executive Paul Sweeney claimed he is bullish about ANS' prospects for the closing weeks of FY15.

"We are doing really well with Cisco, NetApp, and VMware; it is a big quarter for us, certainly in the public sector, and we are quite confident that we are going to have a good quarter," he said.

In 2010 ANS nigh on doubled in size with the buyout of storage specialist Alpha, and Sweeney (pictured right) told CRN the company could look to make a similar move in the coming months to take its sales north of the £80m mark.

"There are probably a few people out there who are stuck a little bit, and we are looking at how we could bolt something on to grow the business," he said. "We have a good-quality managed service, we would just like to take that and get access to more contracted customers."

ANS, which runs an office in the City of London in addition to its Manchester HQ, could look to make an acquisition that would further boost its operations in the south, hinted Sweeney.

"That would make a lot of sense, as 40 per cent of our business is already down there," he said.