RFL, the Chippenham-based communications infrastructure and outsourced IT service provider, has made two strategic acquisitions after receiving a £3.5m investment from the BGF (Business Growth Fund).
The firm’s takeover of Chippenham-based IT Solutions 4 Business Limited (ITS) and Plymouth-based IT support firm Zantra Technology means RFL will double in size. From April 7 the new combined company will be rebranded as Vysiion.
RFL provides highly-resilient critical communication infrastructure, primarily to the utilities industry, while ITS and Zantra deliver IT infrastructure, IT support services and IT outsourcing projects predominantly to the commercial market place. 
The combined group will be ideally positioned to leverage its respective strengths across an enlarged customer base and will focus on growing its existing revenue streams whilst now also being able to put new focus on larger, more sophisticated complimentary solutions and opportunities.
As the difference between communication and compute resources continue to merge, a business’s reliance on technology increases. Behind an apparent simplification in how we work and communicate lies an increasingly complex multi-layered eco-system comprising of hardware, firmware, software and services. Vysiion is an organisation who understand how these elements come together to interact and is uniquely placed to deliver its combined expertise to the benefit of its clients.
Vysiion CEO Peter Clapton said: “Using the platform created by this merger, Vysiion is uniquely placed to go to market with the skills, structure, and critical mass whilst remaining agile enough to be responsive and flexible to our clients' existing and evolving requirements.”
The acquisition has also strengthened the management team, providing the group with the leadership required to deliver both the existing and new objectives. The combined group will remain headquartered in Chippenham, will employ 90 staff predominantly across the South.
RFL was founded in 1996 and has evolved from a supplier of niche protection and telecom products. It now delivers fully-integrated communications, IT and power control system solutions for a wide range of both critical and non-critical applications.
The announcement came shortly after RFL had been awarded a contract to supply the turnkey communications package for an offshore wind farm.
The contract, awarded by Siemens Energy Management, includes project management and design of the resilient fibre optic LAN (local area network) and WAN (wide area network) for the offshore and onshore substations, as well as the provision of the CCTV and telephony systems.
Dudgeon offshore wind farm will be 20km off the coast of North Norfolk and is due to start generating electricity into the National Grid early in 2017.
A total of 67 Siemens 6MW wind turbines will be installed, connecting via an offshore substation, with a combined generating capacity of 402MW.
RFL managing director Peter Clapton said: “RFL has significant previous experience in delivering turnkey integrated communication infrastructure projects, and are delighted to have been selected by Siemens for such a strategically important and fiercely contended project.”
