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The multi-service provider is hoping to capitalise on the raft of regeneration in the North East, and potentially create up to 200 jobs, by opening its latest office in the region.
Servo Group, which already has offices in Leeds, Manchester and London has targeted Tyne and Wear, County Durham and Teeside as prime areas for growth as part of its expansion plan.
Servo has enjoyed fast, national expansion since its inception eight years ago and it’s targeting a £20 million turnover in the next 12 months. The company provides manned and dog guarding, rail labour, CCTV, construction services and facilities management to a host of national clients.
As part of its expansion into the North East, the firm hopes to win some major, multi-year contracts which it predicts could create around 200 jobs in the region in the next two years. Its new office, based in Darlington but covering the whole of the North East will be headed up by North East Regional Manager, Yasmine Hatton-Ashley.
Hatton-Ashley said: “We’re excited by the regeneration opportunities which are taking place in the North East at the moment, such as the Hartlepool Masterplan, the TIGGOR programme and the Darlington Eastern Growth Zone. As a business, Servo has contributed massively to the local economy in other parts of the country, particularly Yorkshire through some major security and facilities management contracts and the South East through our rail contracts. We’re looking forward to having a similar impact in the North East and I’m incredibly excited about this new opportunity.”
Servo has adapted its focus in recent years to work towards greater sustainability – it recently acquired a prestigious ISO 14001 accreditation and is working towards some key objectives such as moving its entire fleet of company vehicles to be electric within the next 12 months. It has also launched a new eco-friendly CCTV solution which helps firms reduce their carbon footprint while keeping sites secure and under surveillance, by negating the use for petrol and reducing plastic use through lack of cabling, which has been implemented for some major clients.
Part of the reason for targeting the North East as its next expansion area was the huge focus on sustainable development in the region. Last year, the North East Climate Coalition was launched to build a £1.5 billion portfolio of projects which will create a regional testbed for growing the UK’s low carbon economy.
Hatton-Ashley added: “Sustainability is a crucial part of our business plan at Servo and we’re looking forward to becoming involved in some of the low carbon projects that are taking place in the region, not just through our security division but across all the sectors we work in – construction, facilities management and rail labour. The development that is taking place to regenerate the region is incredibly exciting, and made it an easy decision to choose the North East as our next expansion target.”
