Limerick technology group AMCS has acquired a British software provider for an undisclosed sum.
The acquisition of the Solution Works (TSW) represents the first major overseas takeover deal by AMCS – which provides IT solutions to the green sector – and forms part of the group’s international expansion strategy. TSW will be merged into the group and will assume the AMCS brand.
AMCS chief executive Jimmy Martin said one of the big attractions of TSW was its software capability. The acquisition will enable AMCS to provide integrated end-to-end software and hardware solutions to the recycling and waste-management sectors.
“It takes us the whole way from collecting bins on trucks to managing invoices,” Mr Martin said.
“It gives that solution footprint, and it’s also a neat way to extend our software team.”
AMCS is recruiting in the technology, electronics and software areas and its headcount is expected to reach 90 by the new year. However, Mr Martin said finding candidates with the necessary skills and experience was one of the group’s biggest challenges.
In 2009, AMCS raised more than €5 million in equity funding from the Ulster Bank Diageo Venture Fund (managed by NCB Ventures), UK-based clean-tech fund WHEB Ventures and Enterprise Ireland.
This venture capital funding enabled the group to enhance its product offering and expand its overseas presence. It now operates in the US, Britain, France, Norway and Sweden, and is seeking to expand into other markets. “That [expansion] may be either through acquisitions or natural growth,” Mr Martin said.
The group is now operating profitably, and re-invests close to 25% of its revenue in product development each year.
AMCS generated a turnover of €7 million in 2010, with more than half of this coming from its export markets. Turnover for 2011 is expected to be at least 20% above last year’s level, while growth of 30% is projected for 2012. About 70% of the group’s 2012 revenue is “locked in” because of contracts already in place, Mr Martin said.
Most of AMCS’s contracts last five to seven years.
AMCS, which was established in 2003, specialises in supplying IT, management and tracking solutions to the recycling and waste-management sectors.