Retec Interface, which develops software for interactive communications between retailers and their clients and will soon come into the orbit of colourful entrepreneur Stephen Dean's Griffin Securities, is on the hunt for acquisitions, says chief executive officer John Cole. Robert Tyerman reports.

Cole, whose former Princedale merchandising company was a spin-off from the Wace group, says four-year-old Retec has developed software that can, for example, enable retail multiples to monitor customers' spending patterns, contact them while still in a store, make a bargain offer and close the deal, all via mobile phone and internet. Retailers can spot which stock lines are shifting slowly in which stores and launch specific cut-price offers to specific customers without any time delay and at a fraction of the cost and risk of conventional promotions.

Retec, which aims to apply its technology in new fields, such as bookselling, transport and education, recently bought Interface Instore Interactive, provider of interactive kiosks and consultant services to Boots, Hertz (UK) and other groups, in a £1.1 million deal funded by bombed-out shell Elite Strategies, where Griffin has five per cent. Cole says this deal brought Retec a key partnership with IBM, which can now offer deals to provide, service and advise on deals for household name companies.

The enlarged Retec is also in partnership with BT on other projects. Cole says the company is testing products in Michigan and elsewhere in the USA, where 50 million of its poorer citizens are denied credit and, as a result, respond more readily to immediate offers with payments settled online.

Cole says Dean, 'our guiding force', owns 30 per cent of Retec and Griffin holds the rest. Elite provided Retec with a £1.1 million convertible loan to fund the Interface deal.

Retec will be renamed Elite Technologies or something similar. After conversion, Elite Strategies will hold more than 70 per cent, Cole ten per cent, Griffin ten per cent and the public the rest.

Cole says he is stalking potential acquisitions now. At a lowly 0.06p, Elite shares offer strictly speculative possibilities.