20 BIG INTERVIEW
I’m a really proud Lancastrian. I love living and working in
Lancashire. People should be proud about where they are from and not lose their roots
Matthew, a former YTS trainee fax machine engineer at FH Brown in Burnley, set up Daisy in 2001 working out of his garage.
Today the group employs 1,400 people across nine UK sites. It is one of the UK’s largest independent, specialist communications groups, delivering a range of cloud, communications and IT solutions to companies across the country.
Having expanded the business organically and through a raft of acquisitions over the past two decades, Daisy Group has been described as one of the country’s most successful growth stories.
Disruption is in Matthew and Daisy’s DNA. In 2010 he told Lancashire Business View that the launch plan was to be the alternative to BT for SMEs in the UK.
He said at the time: “From my perspective I could see that BT was a giant oil tanker of a company that could not change to meet the needs of customers as quickly as we could.”
Today, Matthew, who was named national ‘Young Entrepreneur of the Year’ in 2007 and appeared as a judge on BBC TV’s The Apprentice in 2011, remains in disruption mode.
He predicts that the merger “will revolutionise the telecommunications and IT landscape” and create the most comprehensive offering for businesses of all sizes across the UK.
And he adds: “It will be driven by the entrepreneurial spirit for which we are known and will catalyse the next phase of our ambitious growth plans.”
The offering is simple and was spelled out in the statement announcing the deal, which said: “The new entity will offer significant economies of scale and a range of best-in-class digital-first connectivity solutions and managed services all under one roof.”
Matthew says that the deal took just six months
to complete. He says: “I’ve known Virgin Media O2 Business for a lot of years and for the last five or so I’d been asking if they’d sell the business.
“The answer was always ‘no’. It was the same just before Christmas but they also said ‘let’s have a chat’. We did and, as a result, we’ve ended up with this deal.
“Virgin Media O2 Business doesn’t have its own identity and is engulfed by a huge consumer business and doesn’t get the attention it merits. What we have now is great opportunity for all the people who work within it and their customers.”
He describes the cross-selling opportunities that the merger will deliver as “enormous.” He points out that the Virgin Media 02 Business has more than 500,000 customers.
As well as spelling out the potential, Matthew is also clear on Daisy’s future. It will remain based in Nelson. The 51-year-old says: “It is a Lancashire success story. I was talking to one of our suppliers today and they asked, ‘Are you going to move head office?’ I said, ‘Not a chance!’
“We have brilliant employees here and they are such a loyal workforce. That is why we have been so successful over the years. We’ve got families employed here, it is a friendly place to work and a friendly customer service experience that we are delivering.”
He adds: “I’m a really proud Lancastrian. I love living and working in Lancashire. People should be proud about where they are from and not lose their roots.”
Matthew left St John Fisher and St Thomas More RC school in Colne with no qualifications. According to this year’s Sunday Times Rich List, the former Lancashire Business View ‘Young’Uns’ winner has an estimated worth of £500m. It has been some journey.
He says: “A lot of people say I can’t sit still and I’ve got ‘ants in my pants’ syndrome. I’m always
looking to do things. I’ve always had the ambition to grow the business and keep developing.
“But if you’d told me in 2014 that I’d be doing this deal I’d have had to pinch myself.
“In 2005 we were named the fastest growing tech company in the UK. Time really flies, it only feels like a few days ago.”
Matthew and Daisy’s record of growth was impressive, even before this latest deal. At one stage the business was floated on the AIM stock market before he led a consortium to delist it, going on to take full control in 2018.
Looking back, he counts some 70 acquisitions that the group has made on its growth journey since its creation. When it comes to dealmaking Matthew says: “You have got to be really disciplined.
“The reasoning behind our acquisitions has been to do the deal because it brings us a new product or because it adds more customers that we can sell more products to.
“We’ve also not gone too far off the beaten track. We’ve kept to what we are good at, communications and IT services and B2B.”
Looking ahead there may be more deals ahead. He says: “The first thing is to bed in the merger and get their customers to move to our platforms. That is important. But don’t rule us out from doing further consolidation.”
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94
