White Digital snaps up web design company | North East Deals News

Darlington-based White Digital, which provides website development and digital marketing services, has expanded with the acquisition of a web design company.

The business has swooped for Design365, which has bases in Gateshead and Newton Aycliffe.

The deal will safeguard the future of Design365 and its four employees, after the retirement of director Alan Foster and his wife and business partner Anne Foster.

The two companies will merge under the White Digital brand, bringing the number of staff to 22.

Alan Foster will remain involved in the short term to help with the transition period.

Douglas Dinwiddie, managing director of White Digital, said: “I was introduced to Alan by a mutual business associate, and, after the initial introduction, we met up and a discussion was held around the future of Design365.

“This is the latest in a line of acquisitions that we have made over the last few years, and it has added an array of different skills to our developer department, as well as abilities in software like Magento, so we can now offer more options, especially on the e-commerce side.

“We’ve kept the team on too, as its clients were being serviced by its staff, so logically we wanted to keep that the same, although we won’t be taking on the Design365 premises as they don’t meet our needs.”

He added: “The takeover gives us more stability and a larger customer base, full of customers that we know we can provide a lot of value to.

“It also provides stability in revenue, which means we can continue to grow our team – we’ve found that there’s actually a lot more work and opportunities coming from Design365 than we originally thought, so we are now looking to employ even more staff.”

White Digital is now planning to open a new office in the region to home the growing team and give employees more flexibility over where they work.