MSP Pinacl eyes £20m mark following MBO

Pinacl Solutions completes buyout from US investment firm to 'drive own destiny'

Managed service provider (MSP) Pinacl Solutions is setting its sights on hitting the £20m revenue mark after undergoing an MBO from US investment firm Centre Lane Partners.

The buyout – which came into effect on 1 April and was financed through a loan from the former investment backer – has meant Pinacl can now "drive its own destiny" according to its managing director Rob Bardwell.

"The US funding company didn't give clear direction on what they wanted us to be doing," Bardwell told CRN.

He said following the buyout, the firm is looking to achieve revenues of £20m in four years' time, which would be up from the £12.4m it recorded for its last fiscal year ending 31 March.

Bardwell said Wi-Fi has become a central focus of the business.

"Wireless has become a real speciality of ours so in the last year we have won specific tendered contracts at the British Museum and the British Library, where we won the project and the ongoing support, and also with Aberdeen Council," he said.

"At the moment people either need more Wi-Fi or the Wi-Fi they have is four or five years old and is not fit for purpose. We install what we call 'Wi-Fi Two', which is to take their old Wi-Fi and put the infrastructure behind it so they get fast connections over it, but we do the whole piece of Wi-Fi including security."

Headquartered in Denbighshire, North Wales, Pinacl has 90 staff, and Bardwell said he anticipated the workforce would double over the next four years, as the company grows.

Moving forward, Pinacl will look at acquisitions when they are complementary to the business.

"Our business, because we are looking at the complete infrastructure, drags us into areas that are not core, so for instance desktop is not core but for us but we have a number of partners [in that space]. So if those extras we are being asked for become mainstream, it would make sense that we acquire companies in those areas."