Softcat opens doors to London office

First batch of graduates kick off VAR's London push as it looks to add more regional offices to its tally

Open for business: Softcat's new Moorgate office officially opened its doors today

Softcat has celebrated the official opening of its first London office today and is eyeing more regional opportunities in the future.

The VAR, which won the Sunday Times’ Best Small Company to Work For award this year, has embarked on an intensive recruitment drive for talented graduates in 2010. It is looking to take on 100 new employees in the next three years in a mix of sales, account management and support positions.

A total of 15 graduates, who have had three weeks’ intensive training at Softcat’s head office in Marlow, have started at the Moorgate office today, along with five full-time staff from HQ, including Richard Wyn Griffith and Danielle Binnee who will run the London office as a partnership.

Martin Hellawell, managing director of Softcat told CRN: “We are quite unusual at Softcat because everyone is homegrown. There are probably four or five people in the entire company that have worked at another reseller.

“The rest have joined us fresh out of university or have maybe worked in another job in adjacent industries. Our biggest hurdle to growth is getting as many people as we can on board.”

He said the Moorgate office has capacity for 55 staff, and more graduates will join the start-up team throughout the coming year.

“I would be surprised if we don’t outgrow the office within two to three years. We started our Marlow office with eight people and that grew to 47 within 18 months,” he said.

Hellawell added that Softcat will keep going forward and plans to open up to a further seven regional offices in the future, with Bristol, Cardiff and Edinburgh being mooted as potential sites.