Vebra, the growing Pocklington firm which provides software sales and efficiency solutions for estate agents throughout Britain, has bought a similar company in Somerset.

The acquisition of GMW Systems with 15 staff in Frome, means that Vebra now employs 110 people, most of them at its HQ on the Pocklington Industrial estate, but some based at a the St Albans office in Hertfordshire. The sale price is not being disclosed.

Stephen McCluskey, managing director of Vebra, which provides its management software to 4,000 estate agents, said that the seven-year-old GMW had been bought from its parent Asserta and would continue to maintain its own identity as a software solutions supplier to property professionals in the UK, Ireland and Europe.

More than that, Vebra was preparing to add extra development resources to GMW to enhance its products.

He said: "Vebra is committed to innovation and customer service and we intend to demonstrate this to GMW customers and staff in the years to come."

Jim Buckle, managing director of Asserta Holdings, said: "The acquisition gives GMW customers the best of both worlds, namely continued use of the products they selected as the right solution for their business, but with additional focus and resource directed at the ongoing development of those products."

It is 25 years since Iain Hamilton, technical director, and George Ayliffe, finance director, founded Vebra, building it up into the biggest software provider for estate agents in Britain.

Having doubled its workforce at Pocklington over the past two years, the directors are now hunting for more office space, preferably on the Pocklington Industrial Estate.

Updated: 10:00 Thursday, March 03, 2005