Kalamazoo returns to the Midlands following acquisition

Northfield-based ITS (IT Specialists) has been acquired from a Birmingham-based enterpreneur from Reynolds and Reynolds Ltd.

The move will see the return of a historic brand to the IT marketplace – Kalamazoo. Reynolds and Reynolds Ltd. is based in the UK, and its core business is serving the automotive industry with automobile dealership technology and software to help automotive retailers operate more efficiently and serve their customers more effectively. It also provided managed services, including back up and support.

“We are pleased that we have found the right home for the ITS business, with its roots remaining in the Birmingham region,” said Adele Feeney, managing director of Reynolds and Reynolds Ltd. “This business, as it developed, fell outside the core automotive focus at Reynolds, and we believe the new owners have the right blend of experience and strategy to take the business forward and continue its success. At the same time, this divestiture frees up our management resources to focus more fully on our core automotive business and dealership customers, continuing our momentum there.”

Under the new ownership, the ITS business will offer a full suite of IT solutions and support to over 200 predominantly SME and midmarket customers in a variety of industries. Following the completion of the acquisition, the business will be known as Kalamazoo IT Ltd., a revival of the famous Kalamazoo brand that was one of the early pioneers of IT solutions.

Incoming managing director and co-owner, Rod Taylor, explains, “I have lived in the Birmingham region since the early 1990s and have worked in the IT sector for most of my career. From the 1960s through to the millennium, Kalamazoo was a well-known and hugely respected IT brand in Birmingham and indeed throughout the UK, so I feel a huge sense of pride in bringing it back. As a business, we will offer trusted, personal advice and employ experts to deliver a full range of IT solutions and support, network and internet management, and security and disaster recovery services. We have a traditional customer-focused, high-quality approach, and we think the Kalamazoo brand perfectly engenders those principles.”

The acquisition saw contracts, stock and staff transfer from Reynolds and Reynolds Ltd. to Kalamazoo IT Ltd., which is moving to new premises located within the Birmingham region. The award-winning firm, whose customers include Howdens Joinery, Lyco and Fred. Olsen, has field engineers stationed from Glasgow to Crawley and helps customers ensure minimum downtime through various forms of IT support, hardware break/fix and disaster recovery services. Its wholly owned data center facilities offer customers bespoke private cloud services with a single point of responsibility. This key feature means the company provides clients a degree of security and visibility that many cloud providers cannot match.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.