NSB Retail Systems Plc, a Nottingham, UK-based company offering software for clothing retailers, has entered the US market and acquired the basis for an end-to-end retail system with the 37.7m pound ($58.6m) purchase of Columbus, Ohio-based Unlimited Solutions Inc (USI). The two companies have had a partnership for some time. The logic of the merger is that combining USI’s point of service software with NSB’s applications for centralized management of merchandise, inventory and warehouse operations will provide a complete package that can be offered to retail operations.
NSB shares leapt 21% to 575 pence on news of the deal which directors expect will increase earnings in the first year of operation. Immediate benefits are expected by selling a combined product into the two companies’ customer bases that have little overlap.
NSB has been a small, but successful player in the UK market and last year recorded net income up 53.7% at 895,000 pounds ($1.3m) on revenue that rose 154.7% to 8.3m pounds ($12.9m). USI is roughly the same size and recorded gross profit of $4m on revenue up 32.6% at $10.7m.
NSB chief executive Nikki Beckett said the merger will double its size in terms of customers, employees and geographic reach. While USI was focused on tier one companies with revenues of more than $500m, NSB has been more geared to tier two companies. The merged company aims to produce a selection of packages that can be sold to three tiers.
The acquisition will also benefit NSB technically as it has concentrated on Unix installations while USI has based its software on NT.
