Chess grows sales through M&A mastery

Telecoms VAR records annual sales of £74m

An acquisition frenzy at Chess helped the telecoms VAR swell its 2015 sales by a third.

The Alderley Edge-based supplier of voice, connectivity, cloud and digital solutions pledged to continue on the M&A trail as it unveiled a 33 per cent hike in sales to £74m for the 12 months to 30 April 2015.

Chess, which has made over 90 acquisitions, said its growth was driven by strategic purchases and its efforts to broaden its product portfolio.

Its recent conquests include Avenir Mobile, which added more than 78,000 mobile connections and 200 resellers, and Parachute IT and Compwise ICT businesses, which were designed to bolster its ICT offering.

"2015 saw us continue to reduce our reliance on fixed-line call revenues with a real focus on growth in 'new-world' cloud and ICT product sales," said Chess chief executive David Pollock (pictured).

EBITDA for the year also rose, albeit not as dramatically as sales, by 13 per cent to £14m, while Chess' headcount now stands at 450.

"As proud as we are of our past success, we are excited by our future plans having recently secured a £50m bank facility to support our acquisition strategy in 2016," Pollock said.