Member Article

Gosforth’s RMT helps support technology firm acquisition

Support from Gosforth-based RMT Accountants & Business Advisors has helped to complete the sale of a long-standing North East technology firm to an ambitious IT infrastructure and support services group

The Onyx Group’s acquisition of Knowledge IT is designed to support the Teesside-headquartered company’s drive towards achieving a £100 million turnover within the next five years, and to help expand the range of services it can provide to its 200 customers.

Founded more than 30 years ago, Knowledge IT had an annual turnover of £11 million and employed 65 staff.

The Washington-based firm, which also has facilities in Newcastle, Sunderland and Leeds, works with a range of private and public sector businesses and specialises in areas including cloud computing, data centre services and virtual server and desktop solutions.

The firm’s former managing director George Sanger, who has joined Onyx as group commercial director as part of the deal, appointed RMT to audit Knowledge IT’s accounts and assist in paving the way to a successful sale.

With over 170 employees, the combined business is the largest IT Infrastructure and Services organisation in the North East, and includes six data centres, seven workplace recovery centres and a highly-skilled team of technical architects and consultants.

George Sanger says: “Onyx’s desire to increase the range of services they provide, coupled with our goal of widening our geographical presence around the UK made this a very sound move for all involved.

“Customers are increasingly looking to buy hybrid technology solutions, which combine physical IT and cloud-based offerings, from suppliers who can meet their requirements from under one roof.

“The combined strengths and areas of expertise of the two businesses creates an extremely promising offering in that respect, and there are huge opportunities for us as we bring the respective operations together and move forward as one business.

“I’d had previous positive experience of working with the RMT team, and their support through this deal was superb - they acted in a very responsive and assured manner, and helped smooth the way towards the successful completion of this project.”

Head of Commercial Services at RMT, Paul Gainford, said: “Both Knowledge IT and Onyx have long been amongst the region’s most-admired technology businesses, and we’re very pleased to have been able to help the Knowledge IT management team achieve their goals through this deal.”

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