Exclusive: Storm Technologies lays off 25 as distributor credit lines in question

The layoffs were conducted in mid-July, with around 70 people considered for redundancy

Watford-based Storm Technologies has laid off at least 25 staff in July, with 70 people in total considered for redundancy, CRN has learned.

Former employees at the service provider, who chose to remain anonymous, have alleged in emails and conversations with CRN that the layoffs were motivated by the company's precarious financial position.

Several of the people who were part of the redundancy proceedings recall stories of poor communication with staff and missing or incorrect information communicated at times.

"An email was sent out saying that due to the number of people involved, there would be a group consultation, and we needed to think about nominating representatives," one former employee recalled.

"A document was attached, explaining the process and responsibilities of an employee representative, and how to nominate one. However, the date in the email was wrong.

"Someone informed HR about the mistake, and HR sent a corrected email with the new date. This time, they copied all the individuals into the email, so everyone could see who was involved in the process. Unlike the original email, where everyone was blind copied, we now knew who was part of the process."

Companies House records show the termination of operations director Mark Smith, who had worked with the service provider for over 18 years, according to his LinkedIn profile.

The departures follow several years of turbulence at Storm, which saw the exit of sales director Trevor Nickolls and his team, who left to join Computacenter in 2021.

Distributor credit lines reduced

Following the redundancy proceedings, CRN was able to independently verify that at least one distributor has pulled its credit limit with Storm entirely.

It is understood that another major distributor has halved its credit with the MSP, while a third has been on hold for several months.

John Brooker, CEO of Storm Technologies and Soraya Brooker, MD, were approached by CRN for comment but did not respond by press time.

The service provider delivered seven per cent revenue growth to £126.4m in its latest set of annual accounts, placing it at No. 31 of CRN' s 2024 ranking of the largest VARs and MSPs by revenue.