New name as Walsall firm starts new chapter

CANDA Systems was acquired by the Baldwins Group in 2017 as its first step into the digital arena.

After the announcement of Making Tax Digital in the Government’s 2015 Spring Budget, Baldwins identified the need to introduce a solution for their clients, and with the CogitalGroup investing heavily in technology, Baldwins wanted to be at the forefront of the developments.

As the Baldwins Group has significantly grown over the last two years, CANDA Systems has followed suit and moved into 6,000 sq ft premises in Centre House in Aldridge, last year to accommodate its increasing 50-strong workforce and to provide training and boardroom facilities.

CANDA Systems has now been re-branded and will be known as Baldwins Technology Solutions.

The firm, whose turnover was around £4 million last year, provides the Baldwins Group and their clients with a wide range of IT services including consultancy, support, maintenance, security and VoIP Solutions.

Kevin Brevitt, Head of IT at Baldwins, said this was a significant move for the business.

“Over the years working with Baldwins we have seen the move to digital move within accountancy and the changes that businesses will face, especially with the introduction of MTD coming into force in April, 2019.

“Becoming one of Baldwins’ added value services will enable us to offer clients IT support, cloud based solutions and web development to list a few.

“The re-brand will mean no change to our existing clients and we will continue to support the group and its clients’ needs across the UK. With the group’s head office in Walsall and a team of engineers in Scotland and the South East, we are truly a national business.”

Andrew Watson, chief technical officer at Baldwins Technology Solutions who co-founded CANDA Systems in 2005, added: “Turnover continues to increase year-on-year and we have expanded exponentially over the last few years and we are aiming to grow further.

“We have been involved in major projects such as scaling up Baldwins’ platform and moving their core IT infrastructure to the public cloud, we have helped many of our external clients with manufacturing and accountancy software and moving to cloud-based systems, and our website development team has produced online portals, e-commerce sites and payment systems including one for Baldwins.”

Shaun Knight, board director at Baldwins, said this move was beneficial to both businesses.

“Andrew, Kevin and their team will be able to continue to market their services as part of the Baldwins Group to our clients who are constantly growing, as we add more offices across the UK as we work together for the benefit of all our clients and staff.”

Over the last 12 months, Baldwins, a CogitalGroup company, has grown to 85 offices across the country as part of its national strategic expansion plan, employing over 2,500 staff with an annual turnover of circa £170 million.