IT maintenance company Smart Capital Technology (SCT) has made a multi-million Euro investment in a new German hub as part of its European expansion plans.
The company, based at Twyford, near Reading, provide parts and engineers to replace and repair business-critical networks on behalf of IT suppliers who support an extensive range of organisations – from household brands to industrial businesses – in need of connectivity to networks or servers.
Its 80 staff and over 25,000 parts stored at 40 locations across the UK, Europe and the US enables it to guarantee delivery of replacement parts, and in some cases an engineer, in as little as two hours.
New CEO Andy Morgan who took over the reins of the firm after a management buyout in the spring, said the German move was key to its target of increasing its turnover in mainland Europe. “We already had eight storage and distribution locations in Germany and were holding several thousand parts there to service contracts in Europe,” he said.
“We had an offer from one of our partners, with whom we have a service contract, to buy their stock of 5,000 parts so we took them up on that and set up a legal entity in Frankfurt to be a second hub alongside the one we have here in Twyford.
“We will service customers in France and Netherlands quite neatly from there because it’s western central Germany and it is not too far from our big customers. It is stable from a political and socio-economic point of view so it is a great move for us.”
He said the move also makes sense given the limitations UK exporters are facing since Brexit. “Having this hub in Europe makes it easier to move goods around so that makes it better for us and also a better customer experience, which we see as important,” he said.
SCT has pledged to increase its turnover ‘significantly’ over the next three years and Mr Morgan sees Europe as fertile ground for growth. “Germany is the sweet spot for European growth,“ he said. ”We have seen some recent wins in Sweden where we have taken on a contract to provide engineering. We have also seen some growth in Austria, Switzerland and Poland within the last few months.
“But Western and Central Europe is the place to be. We’re confident the German market is 30 to 50 per cent greater than the UK and as far as mainland Europe versus the UK goes, we believe it is in excess of a £2 billion opportunity in Europe compared to £1 billion here.”
The company also has storage & distribution locations in the US but Mr Morgan is concentrating on Europe for the time being. “There are millions, if not billions, of devices to support In Europe that we are ready for to keep critical infrastructure supported with our rapid response times,” he said.
