Fast-growing Metaphor IT eyes next acquisition

MSP will consider targets in London and the south with a turnover below £5m

Fast-growing managed services provider Metaphor IT is gearing up for its next acquisition after growing headcount from two to 40 in the space of two years.

Having completed the integration of 2016 acquisitions, Virtual Workspaces and Tegen, the London-based firm is ready to acquire again, commercial director Stuart Grist told CRN.

Targets must fit in with Metaphor's existing three pillars, namely cloud & virtualisation, security, and managed services.

"We are not looking to expand beyond those three categories," Grist said. "At the moment we are concentrating geographically on London and the south - below Birmingham; we are not quite ready to expand into the north or Scotland."

Acquisition targets must have revenues of £5m or below because Metaphor does not want to break from its pattern of funding deals through its own profitability, rather than by taking on additional borrowing, Grist said.

The firm, which also acquired security VAR Intellect in 2015, saw revenues pogo by 130 per cent in its last financial year, and has just enlisted another director, in the form of Paul Coyle.

Coyle, who takes on the role of group operations director, worked with Grist and Metaphor CEO Richard Callis when at Intercept IT and Alternative Networks. He joins from Daisy.