UKFast shrugs off Brexit doubt to deliver 40% job growth
Manchester-based cloud and managed hosting specialist UKFast has created 100 new jobs, despite Brexit uncertainty, with headcount rising across the firm’s associated brands from 250 to 350 in less than one year.
CEO Lawrence Jones, a prominent Remain campaigner, insists that despite unanswered questions surrounding the triggering of Article 50, his firm and Manchester’s digital economy are well placed to adapt.
He said: “We sell to thousands of small businesses as well as a significant number of large enterprises, so we get a picture early on of what the landscape looks like.
“UK business doesn’t seem to be slowing down. I’d say that there’s a real determination in the British boardroom to succeed, whatever our relationship with Europe looks like.
“Stirling has taken a dip and there’s suddenly a lot of foreign investment coming through to snap up businesses and property, but that investment should tell people that confidence in Britain for the long term is actually incredibly high.
“Our job is to focus on the positives and continue to support our clients. We grew through the last recession and we’ve doubled in size in the last three years. UKFast won’t stop growing and investing.
“We didn’t consider reversing our plans to take on 100 new teammates after the referendum and we’re as committed as we ever have been to speeding up the internet for our growing base of clients and partners. Building something this special requires special people and plenty of them.”
Jones’s technology firm is enjoying its 17th consecutive year of growth and in October doubled the footprint of its Manchester headquarters with the acquisition of a further 40,000 sq. ft. property adjacent to its current campus in Manchester Science Park.
The new office space is set to house the team and is set to continue and be opened up to other tech-centric businesses, giving UK start-ups a chance to flourish in their early years.
“My focus is on developing and growing the Manchester economy, the digital economy and UKFast just as much as if we had voted to remain. We are agile enough to not be badly affected and are taking steps to reduce any negative impact that may occur.
“It’s a positive that we’re moving forward towards a resolution, whatever the result and whether you agree with it or not. We’ve had enough uncertainty in the last few years and it’s time for businesses to get their heads down and focus on doing what they do best.
“We can’t do much about the uncertainty, but we can do our utmost to keep the economy going, to drive business forward and to make Britain as strong as humanly possible. One thing we can all do today, whatever your feelings on the result of the referendum, is to make a concerted effort to buy British.”
UKFast offers exclusively UK-based web hosting and cloud computing services to nearly 6,000 clients from its Trafford data centre complex.
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