Edinburgh-based professional services firm Visiativ UK snaps up Midlands-headquartered Solid Apps

Visiativ UK has bought Solid Apps, which focuses exclusively on the Solidworks range of products, and supplies and implements on-going support to customers across the UK with a particularly strong client base in Birmingham, Manchester, Oxford, and London.

The Scottish firm, which says it offers an innovation funding consultancy service plus digital engineering and manufacturing services to its global client base, says the deal (terms of which have not been disclosed) will further develop the latter side of its business and extend its reach into the UK CAD market.

Scott Henderson, CEO of Visiativ UK said: “We’ve grown significantly over the past three years through our relentless focus on customer service, but our ambition has always been to extend further into the CAD market. Solid Apps is the ideal partner to do just that with… Our acquisition strategy is to look for businesses which share our values, and have customer service at the heart of what they do. Our acquisitions over the past few years have been based on these same principles.”

Chris Hill, who founded Solid Apps in Oldbury, near Birmingham, in 1998, and holds the title of MD at the firm, said: “While looking towards my own retirement, I also wanted to secure the future of the business, our team, and the service we provide to our clients. In Visiativ we’ve found a partner with experience, expertise and a strong focus on customer service. Our clients can now access a wide range of additional products and services from a business with an international reach. I’m delighted that Neale Hall, my fellow director for the past 15 years, will be staying with the business alongside our existing team.”

Visiativ was established in 2002 in the UK, and is part of French-listed technology and consulting group Visiativ that came into being in 1987, and reported revenues of €277 million in 2023. It says it has more than 1,500 staff, and services more than 25,000 client businesses worldwide, also boasting bases in Belgium, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, Morocco, the Netherlands, USA, and Switzerland.