Lakewood Ranch IT company acquires Venice firm

A Lakewood Ranch-based IT and cybersecurity firm has acquired a fellow Sarasota County company. Four Winds IT announced its acquisition of Suncoast IT Consultants on Aug. 18. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The move enables Four Winds to expand its client base in Venice, Wellen Park and Sarasota County, according to a statement. Suncoast IT Consultants had been based in Venice, according to the Florida Division of Corporations.

Four Winds IT is headquartered in the Lakewood Ranch Corporate Park on Lake Osprey Drive. It serves clients across Southwest Florida, Georgia and the Southeast. On its website, the firm says it is “headquartered in Sarasota with a strong presence throughout Florida" and notes: “We also support clients across the country — distance isn't a barrier to great IT support.”

Following the acquisition, Four Winds IT says it now supports more than 300 small and mid-sized businesses. In addition to managed IT services, it provides cybersecurity, cloud and Microsoft 365 services as well as strategic technology guidance, according to a statement.

Four Winds is currently reaching out to all the clients of Suncoast IT Consultants to see “whether Four Winds is the right fit,” the statement says. Phone and email contacts clients previously used will continue to be in effect.

“You still get local support, now backed by a larger team,” Four Winds says in a statement. 

Suncoast IT Consultants was founded by Chris Kropilak, who has stepped back from the company following the acquisition. He registered the company with the state in 2022, records show.

“After years of serving Venice, Sarasota and Wellen Park, I wanted to be sure my clients would be taken care of well past my own tenure,” Kropilak says in a statement. “Four Winds is local, they've been at this since 2014, and they bring resources I couldn't offer on my own. I'd encourage my clients to give them the same trust they've given me.”

A Four Winds executive also hones in on the concept of trust in a statement following the acquisition.

“Chris built something real in South County, and the trust his clients have in him shows it. Our job now is to earn that same trust,” Four Winds IT Vice President of Operations Dylan Borden says in a statement. “These businesses get the local, personal service they're used to, with a full team, 24/7 monitoring and the security depth behind it that the environment demands today.”