Chess creates ICT management team and hints at further acquisitions

Aggressive VAR celebrates new Burnley office opening and chases further growth

Telecoms and IT support specialist Chess has consolidated its ICT division and appointed a dedicated management team as it continues its shift to an end-to-end solution provider model.

The Cheshire firm snapped up Burnley-based Lanway in June, swelling the size of the company to 550 employees. The buy was the latest in a long line of acqusitions, including IRW Systems, Parachute IT, Compwise Systems - the carrier services arm of Calyx - and the business telecom assets of Businesscoms Consultancy.

Steve Cox, who joined Chess as chief operating officer earlier this year, was the main driver behind the team restructure. The new management team will be led from a sales perspective by Andrew Henderson, who was previously the managing director of Lanway. Tamar Waite, who also came to Chess through the acquisition of Lanway, was appointed head of technical operations and will lead the Chess IT delivery structure.

Cox told CRN that the most recent spate of acquisitions had propelled Chess' run-rate turnover to £105m, and brought the total number of acquisitions to 100.

"We are looking at more," he said. "There's more to come. We are looking at acquisitions in the complete telecoms and IT space. Services - IT services, managed services companies; people who can add capability and scale to what we do."

The VAR also recently celebrated the opening of its newly refurbished Chess ICT Burnley offices (pictured), with council leader Mark Townsend sharing in the celebrations.

Chess founder and CEO David Pollock said: "We are passionate about delivering technological advantage to our customers. Together we have the talent and technology needed to deliver truly integrated solutions across enterprise, mobile and cloud environments."

Counsellor Townsend added: "We are delighted to welcome Chess ICT to Burnley. They have exciting growth plans which fit perfectly with our ambitions for Burnley and we are keen to support them. They are joining a successful business community here - latest official figures show our private sector job growth rate is double that of the North West and GB average. We've also just been named the friendliest place in Britain."