THE north's largest independent telecoms services provider Rainbow Communications has been sold to a payment solutions firm in England for an undisclosed sum.
Rainbow, founded in 1998 by Eric Carson and Martin Hamill as TSI Ireland, and which has more than 10,000 customers across Britain and Ireland, was formally acquired on March 1 by Radius.
Headquartered in Crewe, Radius provides B2B transport and communications services including telecoms, fuel cards, electric charge points, vehicle tracking and insurance.
The takeover will spell the retirements of industry veterans Carson (72) and Hamill (62).
But Eric's son Stuart will continue to work for the company, and it is understood Radius plans to expand the Rainbow business across the whole of Ireland and is looking at creating new premises.
Rainbow specialises in the delivery, implementation, maintenance and service provision of mobiles, broadband systems, cloud telephony, IT and network security services, vehicle tracking and more.
In its last trading year it made a profit of £1.1 million on sales of £11.9m, and it has net assets of £3.9m.
Bill Holmes, chief executive of Radius, said: “Eric and Martin have built a great business over the last 20 years and have a strong customer base that includes many of Northern Ireland’s Top 200 Companies.
“We look forward to working with their team to continue this success and innovate with new products and services over the years ahead.”
Eric Carson added: “We're pleased to have agreed to this acquisition with Radius. Its ethos and expansionary vision aligns with our own and we believe this investment presents an exciting new opportunity, not only for our staff, but for the broader Northern Ireland economy.”
Rainbow Communications represents the eighth acquisition in the sector within the last two years for Radius, which has operated in Ireland for 25 years and has built a growing customer base under the DCI brand, a provider of fuel card solutions.
Ray Ferris, managing director of Radius Connect, said: “The acquisition of Rainbow gives us a greater platform to provide non-mobile services to our growing customer base in Ireland.
“Rainbow has an excellent reputation in the local market and complements our growing mobile business to give customers more choice with their transition from legacy technology to cloud services. We look forward to working with the teams and integrating the business with our Radius Connect team in Belfast.”
Rainbow, which operates from a 20,000 sq ft office complex at Moneyrea, has a staff of 78,and it is understood all will be retained.
