Woods Consolidated, the holding company for fundraising services company Woods Group, has today announced it has acquired Valldata.
Woods Group said it had completed its “100 per cent acquisition” of Valldata on 31 August 2017 from VRD group, a holding company formed in June last year, when the investors who had bought out Valldata Services Limited also acquired Rapidata Services.
Ian Scarr, managing director of Woods Group and the new chief executive of Valldata, said the organisation was “aiming for no job losses” after the acquisition, but said that “some small changes” may need to be made to staffing.
“Both companies will continue to operate as independent brands from their current offices. There are no plans to change or reduce staff but there will need to be some small changes to the way our respective teams work.
"We will likely introduce some partnership working across teams, where this will be of benefit to the services we are offering to clients or where services can dovetail end-to-end; and there are a small number of mutual clients that we will need to cater to with minimum disruption.
“Nothing has been decided yet regarding our final shape in terms of people or branding; we will need to work with and get to know our new members of staff for a smooth transition and we’re very much aiming for no job losses. To be clear this is not a merger of two companies but very much an expansion of our group.”
New HQ
A spokeswoman for Valldata said the cost of the acquisition “remains undisclosed” and won’t be released. She also said that a new, £5m joint headquarters for Woods Group and Valldata will be built in Chippenham and opened next year.
Scott Gray has stepped down as chief executive of Valldata following the acquisition. He continues in his role as chief executive of VRD Group as well as chief executive of Rapidata.
Commenting on the acquisition, Gray said: “The not-for-profit market has significantly changed over the past couple of years and this brings pressures to suppliers to adapt too. It became clear that to grow Valldata, further investment was required and joining forces with Woods Group presents a great opportunity for the company, the staff and the sector.
“Rapidata remains on hand as a strategic partner and I look forward to continuing to work alongside Valldata and to building new relationships with the Woods Group team."
According to the Woods Group, it will be responsible for working on “charity raffles, lotteries, print production and payment processing,” while Valldata will handled “fulfilment, payment processing and specialist response handling” in the new company structure.
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