IDE Group hits £65m revenue following trio of acquisitions

Acquired firms boost revenue but losses widen for IDE

IDE Group has reported a revenue of £65m for its last financial year, largely as a result of contributions from three firms it acquired.

The newly rebranded business, formerly known as Coretx, saw sales for the 12 months ending 31 December 2017 jump 50 per cent on the previous year.

IDE snapped up Selection Services and C4L Group in 2016, before taking over 365 ITMS in a £4.6m deal last April.

365 ITMS contributed £10.4m to the overall revenue during the nine months it was under IDE's ownership last year.

IDE's interim chairman Bill Dobbie said: "2017 has been a year of continued investment and building upon the foundational work that commenced in 2016. Concurrently with this investment, we delivered 18 per cent organic revenue growth and achieved significant sales success.

"Fundamentally, this illustrates the competitiveness and relevance of our portfolio of products and services within our target market.

"Our intention for 2018 is to complete the integration of the three businesses we have acquired in the last two years, significantly reducing our cost bases and becoming more focused on sustainable, recurring margins than revenue growth."

Despite the revenue growth IDE saw operating losses widen from £3.8m in 2016 to £12.5m last year.

The group said that in 2017 a number of high-margin legacy contracts came to an end, and that a number of managed services contracts were one-off deals rather than recurring agreements.

IDE also commissioned a "lifecycle facility" in Dartford, in response to demand from customers to refresh devices.

As a result of "disappointing cash generation" IDE embarked on what it referred to as a "major cost reduction programme" in January which will see it reduce overheads and shave £2m from its personnel costs.

It added that further costs reductions will be necessary to make the business profitable moving forward.