Headcount: 38 (+138%)
Specialism: IT support
HQ: Horsham, West Sussex
Buy and build has helped fuel this West Sussex MSP’s recent growth, Technical Director Richard Maynard tells us (see below).
Having chosen the name and registered the domain while at college in 2001, Maynard and co-founder Andrew Sewell officially launched Wessex IT in 2005.
It counts luxury skincare brand TempleSpa among its customers.
Productivity gains from AI will “weight on our demand for new hires”, Maynard acknowledged.
View the wider Fast-Growth 50 here.
Q&A with Wessex IT CEO Richard Maynard
How have you been able to increase headcount in a flat market?
Buy and build has been a common theme in our growth over the last 21 years and that continued in 2025 with our acquisition of Knibbs Computer Services (our 12th). Our customers have grown, new business is strong and we stand by the popular wisdom that it’s easier to retain a current client than win a new one!
What mega trend do you think will most shape the year for your company?
Security and AI continue to dominate proactive discussions with clients and the inexorable march to the cloud continues.
What’s a fact or quirk about your company most people won’t know about?
“Wessex” (to us at least) is a shortening of “West Sussex” and of no relation to the Anglo-Saxon “Kingdom of Wessex” which ceased to exist in 1066.
Does the rise of AI and automation make it less likely you’ll continue to add headcount at the same rate in the coming years?
In the near term, and for high-growth companies we think AI is going to be a productivity booster – that means doing more with the same team. This will weight on our demand for new hires – and for white collar workers everywhere.
Name one thing you have planned for the next 12 months
We’re massively overhauling our range of cybersecurity services and our whole go-to-market strategy. This includes some large vendor pivots and consolidations and we expect this to be a significant recurring revenue driver this financial year.
