IT specialists celebrate seven-fold expansion in five years

West Midlands IT firm Bold IT has celebrated a seven-fold growth in turnover on the fifth anniversary of a management buyout which has seen it establish itself as a multi-million pound business.

The Tamworth-based firm was purchased by brothers Steven and Anthony Brazier in 2021 when it was still known as Boldmere Computers, a small IT business which relied largely on local residential customers.

It has since evolved into a managed service provider (MSP) with more than 100 clients in the UK and further afield and moved to its new state-of-the-art premises on the Sandy Hill Business Park in 2023.

The growth of the company has attracted external investment and also led to the appointment of former British Army Major Danny Leitch as managing director as part of its long-term growth strategy.

Steven, who first joined the company as an engineer in 2012, said: “I think that one of the things I enjoy most is that it’s us two brothers running a family business.

“It’s enjoyable working alongside my brother and for us it’s not just about the numbers – it’s about sharing in our successes together.”

Talking about how the purchase came about, he added: “I'd been at the company for around 10 years and Anthony was in a totally different field, although he'd run businesses himself back in the day.

“He was actually going through the process of moving to Australia and just on a whim he mentioned if we wanted to do something together.

“It was an off-the-cuff conversation with the owners of the business at the time. We thought we were just buying a computer shop, which is something we were both interested in as we’ve been into computers since we were kids.

“After a couple of months, we realised we could turn it into something completely different in terms of a fully-fledged MSP. And that's what we did.”

Anthony added: “If you grew up in the area where we live, Boldmere Computers – as it was known – is a pretty famous little shop.

“So the idea of owning that was kind of crazy, really. We bought a shop with lots of residential customers and lots of walk-ins, with only three engineers.

“If you look where we are now, we’ve got into a position where we could appoint Danny as managing director, and where we could attract external investment. We’ve come a long way in a short space of time.”

Anthony said the biggest challenge facing the business was helping clients understand the importance of robust cyber security protocols.

“It might sound cliché because it is in the news all the time, but it is so important. Understanding the quantity and severity of threats is vital for any business. It’s about taking threats seriously and taking proactive rather than reactive measures to counter them.”

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Pictured from left to right: Steven and Anthony Brazier