FluidOne adds 5th office to IT branch network, now offering local IT services in the Brighton area

Established 27 years ago by co-founders Graham Lind and Gary Jowett, CNC provides quality IT services to small and medium size

local businesses across Sussex and Hampshire.

This acquisition follows that of Highlander Computing Solutions in January 2023 and projectfive in April 2023, building on FluidOne’s strategy to invest in regional IT MSPs to create a branch network

for expertly delivered localised services for its SME customers. The investment in CNC has expanded the Business IT Centre of Excellence (CoE) for FluidOne to £37m revenue, with 1,100 customers, 164

employees and with 5 branch offices led from Highlander’s Sheffield headquarters.

CNC will operate as a separate branch with a dedicated management team, continuing to be led by co-founder Graham Lind as Managing Director of the Brighton Branch and supported by co-founder

Gary Jowett as Operations and Marketing Director. The branch will report into Steve Brown, as Managing Director of the FluidOne Business IT CoE, ensuring that customers benefit from local account management and engineering, with best practise and a wider services portfolio supported by centralised leadership. Russell Horton, the FluidOne group CEO will assume the role of Chairman for CNC.

Commenting on the acquisition Russell Horton, FluidOne CEO, said: “I am pleased to announce the acquisition of CNC, that builds on our strategy to create a branch network for expertly delivered IT managed services to Business customers. When reviewing the business, I was impressed with the excellent service they deliver and the strength of relationships that the team build with their clients. This was reinforced by great customer feedback in our survey and an excellent NPS of 60. They are a great fit to our strategy, and I look forward to working with Graham Lind, Gary Jowett and the team to grow the Brighton business.”

Graham Lind CNC Founder and Managing Director: “Gary and I are very proud of the CNC business and our great team of staff. We have experienced strong growth over the past 2 years and customer feedback of the services they require going forward from their IT support partner has given us the ambition to accelerate our growth and deliver quality services to even more local businesses. Having met with Russell, Steve and the wider FluidOne team we see a great opportunity to build CNC as the trusted local IT provider whilst benefiting from expert overlay in connectivity, mobile, Unified Communications and Cyber from the wider FluidOne group. We see a strong match in culture and putting the customer first with FluidOne, and the acquisition offers fantastic career opportunities to the CNC team.”

Steve Brown, FluidOne Business IT Managing Director, added: “CNC are a great business with fantastic customer relationships. Graham, Gary and the CNC team will really enhance our geographic presence and skill set as part of the Business IT Centre of Excellence and as a group we are well placed to help them grow their base and further strengthen the proposition they can offer to their customers. We’re excited to be working with another quality and values driven business.”

Post-acquisition, FluidOne’s CEO, Russell Horton, is to become Chairman of CNC, with FluidOne Directors Steve Brown, Simon Ward, Chris Rogers and Roy Hastings also becoming board directors.