Last year Watersheds helped Planit to buy Licom Systems of Coventry in a £6.1million deal, which has proved stunning success. Bryan Pryce, Chief Operating Officer of Planit, said that Licom’s products were “renowned for their reliability, being capable of accurately carrying out the most intricate machining operations. However, the look and feel of the software was seen as being tired and dated, putting the sales force at a disadvantage when selling to new users in competitive situations”. Altering the look and feel of the product and extending some functions, has given the sales force an edge.
The acquisition of Radan builds on this success. Radan, a world leader in CAD/
CAM software for the sheet metal engineering industry, was created in 1976 by Tony Billet. He was a lecturer at Bath University, where he wrote software which proved to have commercial success. He then left his lecturing role to start a business and 27 years later, was in a position to sell a company turning over £6.4million.
Trevor Samadeni, Chief Executive of Planit, said “World sales of CAD/CAM software are annually $1.2billion, of which CAM for sheet metal manufacturing represents $90million. Radan is a market leader in this very fragmented sector, complementing our own CAM division, allowing us to offer our customers a total solution for their manufacturing requirements and by being able to leverage sales by distributing Radan products through our existing channels”.
Richard Buzzoni, of Watersheds, said, “Planit’s strategy is to sell Radan’s products overseas. It already has the Queens Award for Export Achievement. It is great to help a client go from strength to strength”.