Ramesys takes a Bett on recruitment

Education VAR will kick off plans to recruit 50 staff this year at the Bett show

Chambers: We project in five years' time we will have £170m to £180m turnover

Education specialist Ramesys is using next week’s Bett show to launch a recruitment drive that will see the VAR increase headcount by almost a quarter this year.

The integrator has about 225 employees and is planning to add 50 this year. Chief executive Mark Chambers told CRN about 10 of them would be based at Ramesys’ Nottingham office with the rest working on site at schools.

He also said a further 25 to 30 new faces would join in 2010.

“The Bett show offers an ideal opportunity because many people visiting will be good candidates,” said Chambers.

Ramesys has £160m worth of Building Schools for the Future (BSF) contracts already booked for the next five years and 2008 turnover was about £30m.

Chambers told CRN this figure will rise to £50m this year, to £70m in 2010 and would be approaching £200m within five years.

The integrator has won about a quarter of BSF contracts to date and Chambers added: “The BSF programme is still only in its infancy.

If we hold 20 per cent of the market, we project that within five years’ time we will have a turnover of about £170m to £180m.”

Amanda Peck, head of partnerships for Ramesys’ main competitor in the BSF arena, RM, claimed her firm would be fighting to hang on to its market share of about 35 per cent.

But she added: “What is important is that those contracts are delivered to the expectations of our clients. We will be investing in new people who can work in a classroom but also have technical expertise.”