Quasson to expand following Datalink takeover

Broadcast electronics manufacturer Quasson, which supplies products for Autocue among others, has been taken over.
The firm is now part of the Datalink Group, based in Loughborough, which manufactures components for a range of industries and has customers world-wide.
The new group is on course to achieve annual sales of £9 million by 2006.
Datalink purchased Quasson, which makes the famous Autocue prompting devices and broadcast software, from Autocue itself. Investment has already been made in software, machinery, training and refurbishment at Quasson’s Andover manufacturing facility expanding the product capability.
“We have been improving quality and putting more competitive pricing in place at Quasson, and the company already looks very different,” said Datalink director Ian Wilson.
Datalink sees the technology-hungry broadcast industry as a key market for its added value services where high level of design and innovation can achieve premium prices for relatively low volumes.
The Quasson acquisition almost doubled the group’s size, instantly creating a £5 million turnover company, and Mr Wilson said the new group could achieve sales of £8 or £9 million within 18 months to two years by organic growth and further acquisitions.
Eric Luckwell, Datalink’s Managing Director, predicted increased sales would come largely from growth in the company’s design capability and said the group would be looking for an acquisition in this area.
“A lot of the larger scale manufacturing has left the UK but the design work has not left, and we are interested in picking up the design skills that some of the bigger companies have left behind in the UK,” he said.
Design demand was being driven by growth in the market, he said.
To reinforce the changing face of the new company, Datalink has created an updated brand identity for Quasson under a new Datalink Group umbrella.
(GB)