Paragon Data Services is expanding off the back of deals in East Yorkshire and London. The company has signed up East Riding College and Kensington and Chelsea Leisure Centre, as well as expanding its work with retailer JD Sports.
Managing Director Iain Bland said: “We’ve secured quite a number of new contracts and we’re expanding to meet demand. Because of the extra engineering and business work we need more staff, we’re just starting a major recruitment drive.”
The college has brought Paragon in to install wiring at a new campus being built in Beverley’s Flemingate and its Kensington work involves supplying electronic equipment.
Another £700,000 of contracts are still in the pipeline. Mr Bland said: “We’re just in the process of adding another ten staff if the right people come along and they will all be based in Hull. We’re looking for a mix of both experienced people and apprentices. Some will cone on as engineers and hopefully we will get some senior engineers on board as well.”
Paragon is also investing in its business, spending up to £15,000 on new customer service and management software. It is part of a drive to grow turnover to £5m in the next few years. Growth has already been sharp. The company is expecting to do about £3m of business in 2014, up from £145,000 when Mr Bland took over in 2005. The firm weathered the recession well due to a wide spread of customers across different sectors. He said: “We were heavy in manufacturing and very heavy in education. A conscious decision was made to go out and spread our customer base across every different vertical sector and as many different market places as we could. We handle orders from £50 to £500,000 – regardless of how big our biggest order is, we still do the little things.”
The approach has seen Paragon move offices three times since 2005 as it grew. The firm was a small-scale operation in Thorngumbald when Mr Bland came in. It now has London and Berkshire offices as well as a headquarters in Stoneferry Road, East Hull
