Carter & Carter has acquired Blackwater House, a training operation in Northern Ireland, for £980,000 in cash.

The learning solutions provider said it bought the business to support its Department for Education & Learning in Northern Ireland apprenticeship training tender win in the region and enable the group to tender for further contracts in Northern Ireland.

The tender is expected to generate £5 million or revenue in its first three years.

Blackwater House training was previously owned by Component Distributors, a Northern Irish company specialising in sales, distribution and marketing of automotive aftermarket related products.

Rodney Westhead, Carter and Carter non-executive chairman and interim chief executive, said: “We are delighted to have made this acquisition which provides Carter & Carter with a footprint in Northern Ireland from which to grow in the region.

“This important contract win, together with our recent success in the Learning & Skills Council tender rounds, clearly demonstrates the organic growth opportunities in the work based learning sector.”

The acquisition marks a turnaround in Carter and Carter’s luck which saw the company’s shares plummet by 80% in July after its failure to acquire the Phase 1 Pathways to Work training contract.