The commercial division of ADP has returned to private ownership, four years after its acquisition from Kerridge.
This is the result of a management buy-out, along with funding from NVM Private Equity to support future growth and expansion strategies.

The new company, Kerridge Commercial Systems, develops and provides trading and financial software for specialist distribution, wholesale, merchant and retail industry sectors, and will continue to be responsible for product research and development, sales, marketing and support from its existing offices in the UK, Ireland, South Africa and the Netherlands.

Group managing director Ian Bendelow, who headed up the buy-out, said: "We have operated as a semi-autonomous business unit within ADP and ultimately this has provided us with the opportunity to acquire the business. Our products have a very successful track record, they are well respected throughout the various markets that we support and we are extremely proud of the excellent reputation that we have as a class-leading supplier."

He added: "We will develop a future strategy which will be focused on the specialised needs of our customers and make the best use of the technologies that are available to us. We have briefed many of our customers about these important and exciting changes and the reception has been positive. We plan that, before too long, the benefits of our new strategies will be in place for our customers to take advantage of."