'It bridges a geographical gap' - Softcat MD on opening of new office

Colin Brown tells CRN the rationale behind the new office's location

Softcat chose Birmingham for its new office location in order to fill a geographical gap, according to managing director Colin Brown.

Brown told CRN that its operations in the North were covered by its Leeds, Manchester and Glasgow sites, while the South was covered by its Marlow, Bristol and London operations, thus leaving a "gaping hole" in the middle of the country.

The new office will cater to its customers based in the Midlands, while also chasing new clients in the region.

Brown added that there were other reasons behind the decision to open up in Birmingham.

"Birmingham is the second city, so it's always been a good hub for UK business," he said.

"There's a lot of focus increasing in Birmingham, with a lot of large organisations moving headquarters up there; it's buzzing and thriving, and we'd like to be a part of that."

The talent pool provided by the city's numerous higher-level institutes was also a lure for the VAR, which is known for its high levels of graduate recruitment.

"There are three elements to why we open offices in the first place," explained Brown.

"The first is customer proximity, the second is the talent pool and the third is management opportunities.

"When we do have an office, we always provide a management team out of our existing staff.

"It creates opportunities for different people to further their own career by setting up an office within the overall framework of Softcat.

"We've seen some people doing really great jobs for us over the last few years in Glasgow, Bristol and places like that."

Jez Bahia will be managing the Birmingham site. He was previously in the Manchester office, before moving to assist with the opening of the Leeds office.

The headcount at the new site stands at 10, with another five recruits undergoing training at the moment and Brown expects the number to jump to 30 by the end of the company's fiscal year in July.

Birmingham brings Softcat's total number of offices around the UK to eight, with Brown stating that there are no immediate plans for further openings.

"Birmingham fills that geographical gap that we had in the middle of the country, so we're reasonably well covered," he said.

"So no immediate plans but we've opened one every other year for the last five or six years. Don't rule it out, but we're not working on anything at the minute."