Newcastle-based food retailer Greggs has signed with long-standing technology partner Daisy Corporate Services to deliver an SD-WAN solution powered by Cisco Meraki.
According to Lancashire-based Daisy, it is providing LAN Switching, WiFi and 4G/5G connectivity. All delivered via a software Meraki Enterprise Agreement.
The Daisy solution will consolidate legacy systems, provide insight into network performance and support the transition to cloud-based services.
Tony Taylor, IT & Business Change Director at Greggs, says: “Daisy has been working with Greggs since 2008, delivering a variety of connectivity and managed services. As Greggs move towards building a ‘Store of The Future’, we are working with Daisy to deliver a secure, agile, and scalable software defined network. Daisy’s SD-WAN will allow for faster, more usable connectivity to more than 2,100 shops, with better reliability, and resiliency.”
Daisy is an independent provider of IT, communications and cloud services, and an accredited Meraki Managed Server Provider in the UK. (Meraki was acquired by Cisco in 2012 for $1.2 billion / £960 million.)
The Daisy Group was founded by current Chairman Matthew Riley in 2001.
In 2018, four independent businesses were established. Daisy Communications and Daisy Corporate Services remained unchanged. The “most significant” change saw the merger of the group’s three channel-serving businesses (formerly known as Daisy Wholesale, Daisy Distribution and Daisy Worldwide) under a new single brand, Digital Wholesale Solutions. The Daisy Partner Services business also began to operate independently under the new name of Allvotec.
In March 2021 private equity fund Inflexion invested in the Digital Wholesale Solutions business, which was demerged from and left the Daisy Group.
Earlier this month, Daisy Group announced the appointment of its new CEO, Neil Thompson. He joined Daisy in 2021 as CFO.
Daisy seems to be sitting pretty as the company says its reporting revenues stand at over £350 million and its EBITDA is £70 million+.
