Bantek West Inc., a leading national provider of integrated services for automated teller machines and other banking equipment, today announced its merger with The Wilson Group, Farmington Hills, Mich., the Midwest’s leading independent ATM, desktop workstation and OEM maintenance company.

Wilson will operate as a separate wholly-owned subsidiary of Bantek, and all of its management personnel will remain in place.

The merger with Wilson strengthens and expands Bantek’s ATM nationwide second-line maintenance and Client/Server service solutions. Wilson has a 20-year track record of success in those service categories. Wilson also offers broad expertise in ATM installation, de-installation, and software and hardware upgrades. Wilson’s customer base in Michigan, Indiana and Illinois will gain access to Bantek’s national footprint and greater financial resources.

“The combination of Bantek and Wilson positions us to be the leading independent national provider of single source service solutions for ATMs, desktop workstations and printers and other bank branch equipment,” said Fred Wich, Vice Chairman of Bantek. “As banks continue to consolidate, they are looking for national service companies who can provide one stop shopping solutions for all of their ATM and other equipment service and project needs.”

Wich also noted that as an independent service provider, Bantek’s interests are aligned with those of its customers — e.g., reducing aggregate life cycle acquisition and service costs for their ATM and other equipment — in contrast to equipment manufacturers whose primary motivation is to sell their own equipment and solutions.

As a single source service solution provider, Bantek can provide its customers with higher equipment uptime and availability at lower costs.

“Bantek and Wilson are a perfect fit,” added Kim Rhodaback, partner of Wilson. “Both companies believe in the single-source solution concept, and Bantek’s national footprint and greater financial resources will enable us to offer an even more complete service package to our current customer base.” The companies’ combined capabilities in the Microsoft Windows Ô and LAN/WAN market separate Bantek and Wilson from other ATM service providers, an increasingly important consideration as ATMs evolve to a Windows-based operating environment and banks begin separating their ATM software purchasing decisions from their hardware purchasing decisions.

The two privately held firms did not disclose terms of the merger, which is effective immediately.

Bantek was founded in 1986 and has grown under its current management from a regional company serving five western states into a national provider of cash transportation, ATM and other equipment services. It currently has 52 branch offices located coast to coast.

The Wilson Group traces its history back to 1965 as a provider of office equipment maintenance services. For the past 20 years, Wilson has specialized in providing single-source ATM and desktop workstation services and high end installation, de-installation and upgrade solutions to financial institutions and other customers in Michigan, Indiana and Illinois.

As a result of the merger with The Wilson Group, Bantek now services more than 15,000 ATMs nationwide, including second-line services for approximately 4,000 ATMs of all manufacturers, including Diebold, NCR, Wincor Nixdorf, Triton, Tidel and Tranax. The company also services more than 65,000 desktop workstations and printers and more than 1,500 servers manufactured by Hewlett Packard, Dell, IBM, Cisco and others; more than 500 teller cash dispensers manufactured by Diebold and DeLa Rue; and several thousand pieces of coin and currency and other equipment located in bank branches.

Bantek’s 1,400-person workforce includes more than 500 technicians. In combination with The Wilson Group, Bantek will operate 55 branches and a fleet of more than 250 armored vehicles providing end-to-end vault and cash delivery services for ATMs and bank branches.

About Bantek 

Founded in 1986, Bantek is a leading national provider of cash-management and maintenance services for automated teller machines and bank-system desktop computers. The company strives to be the best national, integrated, single-source solution for banks and other deployers of ATMs. Its cash-handling services include ATM restocking and deposit pickup, as well as full armored-vehicle services. Its maintenance services include ATM hardware and software repair, installation and upgrades, as well as maintenance of vaults, pneumatic tubes, alarm systems and other banking equipment.

For more information, please contact Fred Wich at 312-649-1677 or Kim Rhodaback at 248-478-7700.