Bucking the trend
Telford distributor Entagroup has unveiled a shiny new 10,000 sq ft extension to its unique HQ.
It set Enta back a cool £500,000 and seems to basically be a great big extra floor put on top of its existing building.
It houses over 200 staff of the commercial, operational and technical teams of Entatech, its hardware, software and components distributor; Entanet, its voice and data communications provider; and Entamedia, its web and graphic design agency.
“By releasing office space previously occupied by staff we are about to more than double the size of Entanet’s data centres and facilitate a further 200 racks to meet the intense demand for our colocation and hosting services” said Jason Tsai, Entagroup founder and CEO.
Entatech VP Jon Atherton spoke to HEXUS.channel to explain why Enta is expanding when many distributors are considering streamlining. “As an organisation we have shown foresight – we don’t restrict ourselves to just hardware and software, we are an ISP, web agency, etc too.
“We realise that we won’t necessarily be the biggest distributor out there but we aim to be the most important. Combining diversification with focus is the key for us.”
Atherton made it clear that he’s happy for tier one distributors to fight over tier one consumer business – the £300 laptop market, in other words – while Enta derives the majority of its business from the SMB sector, where there are still margins worth speaking of.
A month ago, Enta opened a new sales floor armed with all the latest technology, including Enta’s own VoIP solution. They also took on six new salespeople at Entatech and ten at Entanet. Atherton assures us that they expect to take on the same numbers again over the next 3-4 months.
Thankfully, none of this development will adversely affect possibly the most incongruous building you’ll ever see – an oriental pagoda built by Enta in the middle of a Telford trading estate. Made from genuine Taiwanese and Chinese materials, the unique building cost £5 million to construct and is surrounded by ornate gardens, calming waterfalls and is also home to over 200 Koi carp and an art gallery.
Entagroup was established in 1990 with the founding of Entatech. Today the Enta group of companies provides a broad range of IT products and services, sold predominantly through channel reseller partners. Annual turnover is more than £140 million.
