Arc Technology set to grow with Sheffield move

Stuart Reay: Data leakage will go from being a few per cent of Arc's business to 20 per cent.

Northern security distributor Arc Technology has unveiled bullish plans to treble its headcount within two years after moving to larger premises in Sheffield.

The 5,000 sq ft premises are four times larger than Arc’s previous 1,200 sq ft office in Nottingham and include its first demonstration facilities.

Stuart Reay, managing director of Arc Technology, said the distributor plans to add another 70 employees by 2010 after more than doubling its headcount to 35 over the past year.

He claimed VARs are frustrated with the lack of distribution available in the north.
“Arc’s partner recruitment in the north is on fire because the north is lacking in distributors,” Reay said.

“The premises include three training rooms, one of which can also be used as a theatre for presentations. The facilities will mostly be used by northern, local partners and southern partners with business in the north.”

As Arc continues to expand Reay anticipates increased interest in data leakage and encryption managed services (EMS).

“These are growing areas for 2008-09,” he said. “Data leakage will go from being a few per cent of Arc’s business to 20 per cent, and EMS will account for about 25 per cent of our overall business by 2010.”

Dave Ellis, director of e-security at distributor Computerlinks, agreed that staff are more loyal up north.

“We have an advantage of being in East Anglia. If a company finds the right people, they can hang on to them for longer because there is a lack of other distributors,” he said.

Ellis explained that Computerlinks has been experiencing growth in the same areas due to recent highly publicised cases of data loss.

“Businesses are adopting the technologies available now, because they do not want the embarrassment that comes with the loss of data,” he said. “We are working closely with our vendors around both data leakage and EMS.”