Brulines buys Vianet out of administration.

Byline: Iain Laing

BEER monitoring company Brulines has made its fourth acquisition in two years to corner a new European market.

The Stockton company, which has 210 staff, has bought Vianet, the UK's leading specialist in gathering and analysing data from vending machines.

Brulines has built a successful and growing business processing information on the supply of first beer in pubs and then petrol in garages so operators can more efficiently place orders and check for wastage. It first moved into the checking of vending machines with the acquisition of Milton Keynes-based Coin Metrics last year which uses a similar technology to Brulines but tailored for the amusement and gaming industries.

It yesterday said it had bought Dunfermline business Vianet out of administration for an undisclosed fee. The Scottish business had a turnover of more than pounds 1m last year and assets of pounds 980,000 but it also posted a loss of more than pounds 1.4m.

Brulines yesterday said that it would see a profit from the acquisition within a year after it had taken out synergies between the two companies.

It said the deal gave it a "significant and immediate presence in this growing marketplace without the need for Brulines to expend management time and resources developing a product offering."

Brulines chief executive James Dickson said: "The acquisition of Vianet is a natural extension of Brulines' core capabilities into a growing adjacent remote data capture and management market where there is an opportunity to establish market leading products and services.

"Vianet will immediately provide the group with a pan-European customer opportunity which we will further consolidate as we also work towards expanding Brulines existing activities into Europe as well."

The company is currently expecting to see annual growth of up to 15% over the next five years as it builds its market across Europe and the US.

Half year results released last week showed turnover up more than 10% to pounds 8.9m with profit before tax up 12% to pounds 2.47m.

On-going trials of its premier beer monitoring products in Denver look set to result in a roll-out across the United States and its purchase of Sunderland-based petrol monitoring company Edensure in October bodes well.

And Dickson believes there will be more acquisition opportunities appearing in the coming months. Mr Dickson added: "We are an ambitious company and are in a good position to take advantage of any opportunities that come our way."