PCS performs management buy-in as it turns 20

Ten staff now own stake in Kettering-based reseller as it celebrates two decades in business

PCS Business Systems has performed a second management buy-in to empower more of its executive team as it turns 20.

Some 10 staff now hold a stake in the Kettering-based VAR, which was founded in 1995 by Steve Cream and is a £25m reseller and support outfit.

PCS this month celebrates two decades in business and managing director Stuart Knott told CRN the latest ownership rejig was designed to enable the reseller to continue growing and developing.

"Steve has taken a much smaller shareholding so he can eventually exit the business," Knott (pictured) explained.

"We were in a place where we had very few strategic management and – although the company was increasing in size – we decided we needed to create some extra roles to fill the gaps. We then needed to look at the responsibility and ownership of the company so they could feel they can make a difference and be rewarded for it."

PCS began life in June 1995 as a maintenance and support services specialist but after five years added product supply as a second activity, a dual business model it retains today and which Knott said had served it well.

"The likes of Misco have always been very strong at shifting tin and then as the industry moves they need to add solutions and services onto that. But without having a base on which to do that, it's very difficult," he said. "Other companies have solved that by buying a services or solutions business and then rolled that into one, but we've always been lucky as we have always done it, which gives us one of our key strengths."

PCS - which is one of only 14 Microsoft authorised device resellers in the UK - is aiming to grow turnover to £30m next year, up from £25.7m in its fiscal 2014, but Knott said acquisitions are unlikely.

"We're quite a risk-averse company. We don't pump loads of money into acquisitions or marketing and just make sure we are able to have an increase in profits and turnover each year," he said.

Although PCS' focus over the past five years has been on virtualisation, it has recently added more cloud services to its portfolio and now claims it can migrate customers to cloud with its own wraparound services.

"We all know cloud is the way forward, and that's where our strategy is," Knott said.

Some 36 of PCS' 72 staff have been at the firm for more than five years, he added.

"There are still three or four of the original staff and the rest of us [the management] have been here 11 or 12 years," Knott said. "There are certainly a lot of us that have a great deal of pride in it, as we've been here long enough to consider the business our own."

Cream was PCS' sole owner until a first management buy-in back in 2008.

In the latest ownership shuffle, which was performed in January, Knott said he and the FD had a significant shareholding increase and all the other managers were given a starting shareholding.