A woman who took over a York software company and expanded it into an £18.5 million turnover operation has sold it to an outside bidder, it was disclosed today.

Boxing clever: Sue Ashby who has sold her Software Box, posing in a phone box that inspired its name

The deal is believed to have netted her a multi-million pound fortune.

Sue Ashby, who bought out Software Box Ltd (SBL) now based in Sutton-on-the-Forest two years after it was set up in 1987, has sold the majority shareholding in a buy-in/buy-out deal to Irishman Dennis Hoban, who lives in Cheshire.

The precise amount of the sale is undisclosed but it is believed to reflect the prospects of the company which forecasters say will hit the £22 million turnover mark by the end of the year and already Mr Hoban is looking to expand the business and acquire more.

His finance director Keith Thomson said that it meant that the firm's 47 jobs were assured with the clear prospect of more to come with expansion although at this stage no employment target figures had been set.

The firm, which specialises in accounts, payroll, security products, service and training packages has supplied software to the Ministry of Defence for the past seven years.

Under the deal, negotiated with the northern office of corporate finance advisers Grant Thornton, Mr Hoban takes over as chief executive while Sue Ashby, who lives near Malton, retains an interest as a consultant.

Mr Hoban will continue with the existing management team of Craig Bumby, Colin Williams and Keith Thomson but also brings in a partner, Bryn Roberts, as a non-executive director.

Mr Hoban said: "This acquisition provides an opportunity to significantly grow the business by expansion into the private sector.

"And this, together with our acquisitive strategy should in turn improve profitability and subsequently uplift shareholder value."

Richard Dean, a senior manager at Grant Thornton said: "He is very experienced in IT and having just come out of the industry he decided to go back in."

Only last October Sue Ashby told Business Press: "Give me a crystal ball and I'll tell you where I'm moving to next."

She was talking about the days when she operated the company from a bedroom in her house in Stamford Bridge, before moving premises first to Acomb, then Clifton Moor and finally to East Moor House on the Green Park Business Centre on the outskirts of York.

The firm began as a telephone selling operation and its name arose when a previous boss contacted her from a red telephone box. The company's original strap-line was "your software is only a phone call away."

The firm had now expanded into three operation areas - corporate software, technical business and security products, offering a one-stop solution to customers, including the Ministry of Defence to whom it supplies software and associated goods and services.

Software Box is also actively involved in UK pilot schemes for both Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and for Electronic Software Distribution (ESD.

It recently appointed a north east agent for Swedish-based Jeeves Information Systems AB based on its track record of supplying business solutions to the UK market for the past ten years.

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