History

The Black Bear Group was started in September 1996, then called Black Box Industries, and has traded from our current building since 2000. In the beginning we supported home users and small businesses, as well as supplying schools across Lancaster.

In 2005 we were awarded the "Acer Point Partner of the year" and won this again in 2007 and 2010, proving we were the top independent partner in the UK. In 2008 we realised that our shop could not support the larger businesses requirements so we purchased ISSO technologies, a business support company, and Black Box Business began. In 2010 the business was taken over by the new owner Richard Alford. From the growing success of Black Box Business we were noticed on the national level by Black Box Network, due to a trademark issue we needed to change our name, so the Black Bear was born! At the same time we separated the consumer side (Black Bear Computers) from the commercial services division Black Bear IT Solutions.

Over the last decade we have been finalists for Retailer of the Year and Managed Service Provider of the year by PCR and Network Group (both national IT bodies). We have also been finalists for Best Customer Service Provider in 2017 and 2018 by The Bay Awards. In 2018 our MD (Richard Alford) was awarded IT CEO of the Year in the Global CEO Excellence awards. We’ve come along way from 1996 to become one of the UK’s leading independent IT companies.