Tech sector consolidator Kick ICT has hit the half-way mark in its drive to become a £50 million turnover operation with the latest in a string of acquisitions.

The IT services provider has bought Consilium UK of Paisley for an undisclosed sum, taking its run rate turnover to £25m and boosting headcount by 25 to 160 employees. Consilium director Richard Abrams has been appointed head of technical services of the enlarged group, with co-directors Stuart Beattie and David Hood also moving across as part of the deal.

Established as a vehicle to drive consolidation in the IT market for small and medium-sized businesses, Kick is headed by chief executive and co-founder Tom O’Hara. Mr O’Hara described the deal – the company’s eighth in seven years – as the “creation of a super-group of technical talent”.

“Kick has made excellent progress during the last year including integrating the three acquisitions we made in 2021,” he said. “The addition of Consilium sees us create an outstanding and unrivalled technical team and I’m excited about working with Richard, Stuart, David and the team.”

READ MORE: Kick strikes again with third acquisition this year in Scottish technology sector

Established in 1998, Consilium provides consulting, support, cloud and security services throughout the UK. Mr O’Hara said the two companies have “known” each other for about 10 years, which made for a smooth acquisition process.

“We are delighted to be joining Tom, Alan and Jeannie and the team at Kick and are looking forward to delivering outstanding technical solutions to customers across the group,” Mr Abrams said.

With the acquisition, Kick is projecting a rise in pre-tax profits to £4m, with recurring revenues of £19m. Consilium also has a presence in London, which Kick says will be key in its ongoing growth strategy.

Mr O’Hara said further deals are in the making as Kick aims to hit the £50m revenue mark by 2025: “There is one in the pipeline that will hopefully get over the line early next year.”

Prior to setting up Kick in 2015, Mr O’Hara spent 10 years building up the Scottish arm of Technology Services Group (TSG), the software company established by Sage co-founder Graham Wylie, into a £10m turnover business. Kick is owned by Mr O’Hara and his co-founders – sales director Alan Turnbull and strategic initiatives director David Chazan – along with two further minority investors.

READ MORE: Kick snaps up a further Scottish tech firm as expansion rolls on

Mr O’Hara said the Consilium operations will be re-branded under the Kick banner in the coming months, though the focus at the moment is on maintaining “business as usual” for existing customers.

“I’m delighted to welcome our new customers from Consilium and very much look forward to working with them,” he said. “In addition, it’s great that our new customers will take us over one of our early milestone objectives of working with 1,000 customers across the UK.”

Headquartered at Strathclyde Business Park, Kick is backed by the BGF investment group via an £8.7m injection in 2021 to support both organic growth and acquisitions. The former is being driven by the launch of the Kick Academy, a project aimed at recruiting school leavers and graduates.

Richard Pugh, investor at BGF, said: “This acquisition will broaden Kick ICT’s already outstanding service offering and client base. We will now continue to work closely with Tom and the wider management team as the company continues to grow its scale, capabilities and presence.”

During the year to the end of September 2021, Kick posted a 10% increase in turnover to £14.6m along with a 12% rise in pre-tax profits to £1.7m. During that period the company made three acquisitions: Turnkey Business Software (TBS), Turnkey Infrastructure Solutions (TIS), and Glasgow-based Clyde Solutions.