Where is Softcat opening its next office?
CEO Graeme Watt reveals the location of the UK-based reseller's eighth UK office
Softcat is set to open the doors on its eighth location in the UK with an office in Birmingham.
The office will be up and running by August or September this year with an initial headcount of 10 to 20 staff, comprising a combination of existing Softcat leadership and new local talent, Softcat CEO Graeme Watt told CRN.
The Birmingham site will mark Softcat's eighth location in the UK and ninth internationally after it set up shop in County Dublin in August last year.
Watt said expanding in The Midlands is in line with his belief that there is still plenty room for Softcat to grow its market share in the UK.
Despite being the country's second-largest reseller by revenue, Watt said that Softcat only has a 6.9 per cent market share in the UK, citing findings from CRN's Top VARs.
"It underlines in a very real way how we view our market share opportunity in the UK," Watt said.
"We're going to get closer to some customers in the Birmingham and Midlands area and we're going to create some new opportunities for people to develop their careers there as well.
"Birmingham is the second-largest city in the UK and if you start profiling it from a business point of view, and the businesses we serve, it was an obvious next place to go. I haven't been party to what decisions we've made historically about where we've gone, but you could argue that it's surprising that we weren't in Birmingham sooner. So it's an obvious next step for us."
Softcat's expansion in the Midlands follows its first international expansion move last year. In August, it opened an office in County Dublin which is now manned by 15 sales heads.
Watt said setting up shop in Ireland has been a more complicated process than opening a new location in the UK, as the reseller has had to build up new processes, accreditations and vendor relationships.
"But I am pleased with the recruitment, and I'm pleased that we've now secured all the major accreditations that we wanted in the marketplace. And we're talking, selling and in some cases in advanced discussions with a lot of new logos in Ireland as well. So we're on track," he added.
Watt has previously spoken about international prospects for Softcat. But the CEO played down the notion of Softcat expanding outside the UK and Ireland.
He pointed to the reseller's 6.5 per cent growth in new customers for its H1 results as evidence that there's plenty of opportunity to grow in its existing markets.
"As you'd expect any leadership team to be doing we're continually challenging ourselves about what next, and where's the growth coming from, where do we need to invest, and we have those discussions regularly.
"We do discuss the merits and risks of setting up internationally, but we have no plans to go outside the UK and Ireland right now," he said.