With the acquisition of warehouse management software provider ATMS, Advanced Business Solutions has brought one of its partners in-house to boost its third party logistics proposition. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed but Birmingham-based ATMS has annual revenue of £1.3m, derived from 40 customers, which include the likes of Molton Brown, Walkers Snack Foods and Domino’s Pizza Group.
The plan is to fold ATMS into the Advanced Business Solutions Commercial Division and build on existing integration between ATMS and Advanced products (the vendors already have some joint customers). Integration into the OpenLogistix supply chain product that Advanced acquired in March 2011 (as well as the OpenAccounts solution) will result in a richer set of capabilities naturally. The move marks another step in the buy and build strategy and the growth of the business unit (part of the Advanced Computer Software group) that was kicked off with the COA acquisition (see here). Although the Business Solutions unit was the slowest growing area of the group in H1 (see Healthy growth for ACS in H1) it still managed market-beating 5% organic growth – better then the 3% organic growth competitor Sage is pegged at (see here).