Smart move as Darwen firm Bglobal gains ‘missing piece’ (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Smart move as Darwen firm Bglobal gains ‘missing piece’

2:32pm Wednesday 26th September 2012 in News

AN East Lancashire firm has expanded with the £670,000 acquisition of a Wales-based software solutions provider.

And the boss of Darwen-based smart meter manufacturer Bglobal said Draig Technology was ‘the missing piece of the puzzle’.

The company, based in Commercial Road, has taken over the Bangor firm which employs 14 people.

Bglobal chief executive Tim Jackson-Smith, who played a key role in securing the deal, said: “Draig is the missing piece as now we can develop the billing engine.

“With that we can provide a full end-to-end service, from making the smart meter to installing it, reading it and sending the bill out.

“It is a very important acquisition for us.”

Mr Jackson-Smith said the future looked bright for Bglobal.

He said: “We have taken on a really capable team of people at Draig.

“We will be keeping the operation in Wales but we hope to create more jobs in East Lancashire in the future.” Mr Jackson-Smith said Bglobal would be at the heart of the smart meter revolution.

He said: “We are looking to strong growth as we should be able to play a leading role in the introduction of smart metering.

“If we achieve that then we will be very busy and will need more people to help grow the business.”

Bglobal is the UK’s number one smart metering company, having installed 170,000 metres to industry.

A smart meter is an electric device that monitors energy use and feeds the data back to the utility firm directly.

Bglobal was hit by the Government’s decision to push back mass roll out of smart meters and in November last year it was announced it had cut 50 jobs to save £1.5million.

Following the announcement the companies share price rose 3.43 per cent to 9.44p per share.

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