UK Web Development And Hosting Company For Sale

Business description

This is your opportunity to purchase a well-established web development and hosting company at an extremely favourable purchase price. The ideal buyer will be an existing .NET web development company that currently has spare development and hosting capacity and would like to absorb the seller’s clients and services into their own offering.
Established in 1994, the company has provided professional tailor-made web design and hosting services for businesses looking for outstanding service, and unsurpassed expert advice and support. The business also has considerable expertise in search engine optimisation, having achieved many top-place positions for competitive phrases for client sites on Google and other search engines.
The business has a diverse and growing client base and enjoys a regular annual income stream for hosting, domain names, search engine optimisation and pay-per-click services, as well as from change requests and ongoing maintenance to existing web sites. The hosting churn rate is less than 1% and repeat development work accounts for 44% of the design and development turnover.
The company is an ISO 9001 registered company, allowing it to tender for Government, large organisation and EU contracts, if desired. The ISO 9001 status also ensures that the company is run with best practice procedures and processes.

Business Leads

Leads are currently attracted from existing client web sites, existing clients (repeat business) and exceptionally strong search engine positions. There is no active marketing to speak of and the sales function is not particularly strong, and again this presents an opportunity for the right buyer to use the reputation of the company and their own sales staff to build a strong marketing campaign.
From January to December 2008 over £3 million in sales leads were attracted (fully documented, and up from £2 million in 2007) of which £250,000 were converted to sales. For a buyer with a strong sales function, and by implementing the staff changes mentioned earlier it is felt that the conversion ratio could be increased significantly.
Importantly in the current climate, October to December 2008 was the strongest sales quarter for the entire year and January 2008’s sales targets were met by the middle of the month, working again against the general business trends being witnessed at the current moment.
Clients

The company works with a wide range of clients across many industries as well as private individuals. In each case, the company seeks to build a long-term relationship based on trust, reliability and support. The company invests time getting to know and understand a client’s requirements and business in order to maximise any added value and to fully serve them. A loyal client base has been established as a result, with pending sales from existing clients currently in the region of £100,000.

Key Opportunities

To re-iterate, the key opportunities for the right buyer are:
• Instantly increase their client base by around 200 clients
• Instantly improve profitability by bringing design and development services in house
• Instantly have access to a new sales generation, and to be able to convert a higher volume of sales
• Instantly have access to an MS Windows hosting business with £55,000 annual turnover, and design business with £277K turnover of which 44% is repeat
• To purchase a company with a strong background at a reduced price, that will be able to provide strong growth and profitability into the future particularly once the current economic conditions start to clear.
Financial Status

As mentioned earlier, the company has been affected by the current exchange rate but this can be easily and instantly rectified by the new buyer.
Aside from this, the company has a small overdraft facility and a small director’s loan but no other debt or financing commitments.

Property information

Property:

Leasehold

Location:

Location: Relocatable

Other information

Support & training:

Support and training will be provided for the new owner and also to help relocate, migrate clients.

Reasons for selling:

In the current climate, the seller believe that whilst the company can continue to operate with the weak exchange rate, the company’s strongest future lies with a takeover by an established UK presence. The seller is also looking for a complete change in their life and wishes to pursue new opportunities not related to the sector. The seller has indicated that they would be willing to undertake a salaried position for up to a year to ensure a smooth transition to the new buyer and to encourage existing clients to fully utilise the services of the buyer. As a minimum, the seller will provide a one-month handover included in the sale pirce. It has also been indicated that the seller would like a clean purchase, rather than an exchange of capital, performance related price or other dependant settlement.