Following the acquisition of the Exchange Telegraph Company Ltd earlier this month (CI No 1,418) for the sum of UKP1, MBS Plc has announced that it is merging its engineering operation with that of Extel Information Technology. This will lead to the loss of 100 jobs and the closure of six Extel and MBS locations. MBS managing director Jim Thatcher is moving the merged businesses towards the BSI 5750 accreditation that Extel already holds, and says that this has led to the unnecessary duplication of many office-based jobs in middle and junior management roles. However, as it works towards its goal of being the largest independent sevice company to hold this accreditation, MBS Engineering will keep nearly all service engineers.
