Business Breakfast: Harrogate IT company reports improved revenues

The Stray Ferret Business Club’s next meeting is an after work drinks event on Thursday, August 31 at The West Park Hotel in Harrogate between 5-7pm. 

The Business Club provides monthly opportunities to network, make new connections and hear local success stories. Get your tickets by clicking or tapping here.

A Harrogate-based IT company has reported improved revenues in its full-year report.

Redcentric, which is based on Otley Road, generated total revenue of of £141.7m for the year ended 31 March 2023 — up from £93.3m the previous year.

The company made three acquisitions over the last financial year, which included deals for 4D Data Centres, Sungard Consultancy and Sungard Data Centre.

A further two deals were struck for Piksel and 7 Elements in the previous year.

As a result of the acquisitions, Redcentric has added more than 600 customers to its data base.

Peter Brotherton, chief executive at the company, said:

“The integration of the five acquisitions undertaken in the last two financial years is now largely complete, with the savings pertaining to the remaining energy conservation measures and closure of the Harrogate Data Centre to be realised before the end of the current financial year.

“The acquisitions have resulted in a significant increase in revenues and much improved organic growth. Improvements in profitability will follow in FY25 once the synergy and energy efficiency programmes have been completed and the much reduced electricity commodity prices take effect.”

Growth Hub to host business peer support groups

York and North Yorkshire Growth Hub is set to launch a peer support group for businesses next month.

The organisation will host three sessions in September, which aim to partner business leaders with each other to offer structured and collaborative support.

The initiative will include a peer-to-peer support programme hosted by Pro-Development on September 22 and RTC North will host a forum on September 27 in Harrogate.

Meanwhile, a women peer-to-peer group hosted by Yorkshire in Business will also be held on September 27.

Jenn Crowther, chief executive of Yorkshire in Business, said: 

“Think of it as having your own professionally facilitated informal board. 

“Women Connect is designed for businesswomen invested in developing their business and helping others to do the same.”

For more information on the events, visit the York and North Yorkshire Growth Hub website here.

Read more:

 

Business Breakfast: Harrogate IT company posts improved revenue in interim results

Now is your time to shine with the Stray Ferret Business Awards. We are encouraging businesses of all sizes from right across the Harrogate district to enter for our awards and get recognition from our top panel of judges. Entries close on January 16.

Harrogate IT service provider Redcentric has posted improved revenues in its interim results.

In the six months to September 2022, the company’s total revenue grew by 38.8% to £61.5 million.

The figure is up from £44.3 million in the same period in 2021.

The results come as the company, which is based on Otley Road, acquired both Sungard Availability Services Ltd the entire issued share capital of 4D Data Centres for £10 million last year.

Peter Brotherton, chief executive officer at the company, said:

“The last six months have been a transformational period for the business, with three acquisitions completed. These acquisitions, together with the two acquisitions completed in the previous financial year, have significantly enhanced our product offerings, and substantially increased run rate revenues from c.£90m to c.£150m.

“The integration of the businesses acquired in the last six months is progressing well, with annualised savings of c.£10m already realised and initiatives underway to deliver a further c.£7m of annualised savings.

“The outlook for organic growth is also favourable, with positive net new business achieved in each of the last six months to 30 November 2022.

“We look forward to building on the success of the last six months and to fully capitalise on the very significant opportunities resulting from the enlarged customer base and increased breadth of products and services.”

Businesses invited to bid for £7m net zero grant schemes

Businesses are being invited to apply for new grants aimed at net zero projects in North Yorkshire.

The move comes as the county is set to be awarded £7 million worth of funding as part of a devolution deal from government.

York and North Yorkshire Local Enterprise Partnership is running two grant schemes.

One is a £1m project development support scheme, which is aimed at supporting net zero ideas so they are ready to take to investors.

The second grant stream has £6 million of funding and is aimed at delivering net zero projects.

Applications and expressions of interest are open until midday at February 6.

For more information, visit the York and North Yorkshire LEP website here.

Read more:

 

Harrogate IT firm makes £10m acquisition

Business Breakfast is sponsored by Harrogate law firm Truth Legal.

Redcentric makes another acquisition

IT service provider Redcentric has completed the acquisition of the entire issued share capital of 4D Data Centres for £10m.

4D Data Centres is a data centre operator and cloud services provider. It operates centres in Surrey, Gatwick, London and Kent.

Redcentric’s headquarters are at Central House on Otley Road and has made a number of acquisitions over the past 12 months.

In June, the company acquired three data centres as well as network services from Sungard Availability Services (UK) Ltd, which went into administration.

In March it acquired security testing firm 7 Elements for around £4.5m. Last October, it bought York IT company Piksel IS for £9.5m.

Read more:

Free business advice at Harrogate drop-in

A business support drop-in session will be held at Harrogate Co-Lab next Wednesday, July 13.

Hosted by Harrogate Borough Council’s business services department, the free event will have experts from the growth manager service, Ad-Venture and York and North Yorkshire Growth Hub.

Each will be available to answer questions about starting and growing a business, as well as free support and grants available for businesses in the Harrogate district.

The event runs from 9am to 5pm at the Co-Lab base on Kings Road, Harrogate.

For more information, email business@harrogate.gov.uk.

Butcher serving Harrogate district appoints first resident chef

A butcher that provides meat and poultry to restaurants, cafes and homes across the Harrogate district has appointed its first resident consultant chef.

Greg Lewis will help Wetherby-based Sykes House Farm develop products and build and run a new demo kitchen on site.

Rachael Hirst, who runs the third-generation family business with her brother Robert Smith, said:

“We are delighted to have Greg on board and are extremely excited for our future plans with him.”

Mr Lewis began his career as a bakery assistant in New Zealand, then progressed onto cooking for athletes at the Sydney Olympics. He then moved to the UK and worked under Jeff Baker at Pool Court, Leeds, which was England’s only inner-city Michelin starred restaurant outside of London at the time.

Estate agent makes series of appointments

Georgie Williams

Estate agent Dacre, Son & Hartley has made a series of appointments and promotions across its North Yorkshire offices.

Georgie Williams has been promoted to branch manager in the Wetherby office, where she will lead the team selling homes throughout the town and surrounding areas including Boston Spa, Collingham, Tadcaster, Spofforth, Sicklinghall, Bramham, Harewood, Scarcroft and Kirk Deighton.

Alison Reilly from Dacres’ Pateley Bridge office and Dan Rice from the Ripon office have both been promoted to sales managers. Reilly has worked at Dacres for almost 19 years and Rice joined in 2018.

In the company’s Harrogate office, Alex Jackson and James Curtis-Bean have been appointed as sales negotiators. The pair will work alongside the team’s branch manager Sophie Tillisch.

The North Yorkshire teams are led by area director Paul Baxter. He said:

“These promotions and appointments will enhance the standard of service that our clients enjoy, and further strengthen our Wetherby, Harrogate, Ripon and Pateley Bridge offices.”

Harrogate IT firm acquires company

Harrogate IT firm Redcentric has acquired a provider of security testing, incident response management and consultancy services.

7 Elements works with customers to assess security threats, identify weaknesses and provide tailored support.

The company, which has operations in Edinburgh and Leicester, has an annual revenue of about £1m.

Following the acquisition, it will continue to operate as a standalone business and will be led by its former owner, David Stubley, who established the company in 2010.

Redcentric paid £1.95m in cash, which could rise to £2.4m based on the future performance of the business over the next 13 months.

Chief executive Peter Brotherton said:

“I am delighted to welcome 7 Elements into the Redcentric family. The addition of its services to Redcentric’s existing DDOS, SIEM, managed WAF and information security consultancy services means we are now able to offer a complete portfolio of security services to our customers.”

Harrogate IT firm buys York company for £9.5m

Harrogate-based IT services provider Redcentric has bought York IT company Piksel IS for £9.5m.

Redcentric’s headquarters are at Central House on Otley Road and said the acquisition will help it develop its cloud and security services.

Piksel IS employs 93 staff in York and London.

In July, Redcentric reported revenue of £91.4m for the year ending 31 March 2021, up from £87.5m in 2019/20.

Peter Brotherton, chief executive at Redcentric, said:

“This is an extremely exciting strategic acquisition for Redcentric and combines the secure, asset light, digital transformation capabilities of Piksel IS with the managed infrastructure, unified communications and connectivity solutions of Redcentric.

“We are delighted that the combined portfolio will accelerate the Redcentric group’s ability to deliver industry leading, transformative solutions to our customers and expands our capabilities in hyperscale public cloud and security.”

Read More:

Paul Mardling, managing director at Piksel IS, added:

“We are looking forward to being part of Redcentric.  The combined expertise of Redcentric and Piksel IS will bring benefits to both our customers and people.  We are now part of a successful larger group and that will help us capitalise on the growing and substantial market for advanced cloud services, networks and cyber security.”