Chess makes the right moves for growth

Chess has released its annual financial results, which show both turnover and profit growth helped by strategic acquisitions. Sales increased 33 percent to £74 million and the company saw an EBITDA increase of 13 percent, to over £14 million.

The business has also taken its head-count to over 450 people. David Pollock, chief executive of Chess, said: “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.

“We have invested in business systems and infrastructure with a major initiative on the ‘customer journey’ and made some significant appointments to strengthen the senior management team across the group.”

The company also recently secured a £50 million banking facility from Barclays to support its acquisition strategy in 2016.

Chess’s growth in revenue and EBITDA was driven by its strategy of acquisition, including Avenir Mobile in June 2014, which added more than 78,000 mobile connections and 200 resellers. Other acquisitions included Parachute IT and Compwise ICT businesses, strengthening Chess’ ICT offering.

Pollock said: “We are proud to have built a long-term and sustainable business, one which continues to grow organically and by acquisition, building on a solid infrastructure based on people, processes and product.

“I would like to thank our people for their hard work, support and commitment in building a business of which we can all be truly proud.”

Chess director Richard Btesh said of the capital available to the company: “The bank funding received from Barclays demonstrates the success of our strategy of acquiring small- to mid-sized telecom, ICT and digital businesses, and sends a message to anyone in the industry looking to sell all or part of their business – Chess are buying in 2016!”

@AntonySavvas