Progressive, which has numerous UK timber industry clients for its BisTrack software, was about to roll out a major new rebranding campaign announcing its new name – Solarsoft Business Systems (following its acquisition by Solarsoft in June) – when the Epicor announcement was made.
Solarsoft’s owner Marlin Equity Partners has agreed to sell the Solarsoft business to Epicor, with an expected deal closure at the end of October.
Epicor’s sales – US$847m in 2011 – dwarf those of Solarsoft (US$90m). Some 86% of its business is in the Americas, with 10% in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Epicor said Solarsoft’s solutions and expertise in process manufacturing would allow Epicor to accelerate initiatives in the food and beverage, pharmaceuticals and healthcare industries.
The acquisition would also support the delivery of both companies’ cloud-based enterprise, resource and planning software as a service (SaaS), hosting and managed services offerings.
Epicor said Solarsoft’s solutions were well aligned to its own and would strengthen its leadership in manufacturing and disribution divisions worldwide. Epicor has also highlighted Manufacturing Execution System (MES), process manufacturing, automotive and the print and packaging industries as opportunities for cross-selling and entering new markets.
“Combined with Epicor, our increased scale, expanded solutions portfolio, enhanced service offerings, and global infratructure will drive even greater value to our customers, now and in the future,” said Shawn McMorran, CEO of Solarsoft.
