A North East IT service provider is continuing a period of growth, despite the coronavirus lockdown. 

razorblue, which is based in Catterick, North Yorkshire, provides end-to-end solutions for businesses across the region and beyond, with offices in Newcastle, Wynyard, Leeds, Manchester and London. 

The firm has averaged 30 per cent year-on-year growth over the past six years meaning that, while many companies have found themselves scaling back over the course of continued restrictions, razorblue has expanded, moving into new headquarters and recruiting more staff. 

CEO, Dan Kitchen, who also project managed the £600,000 office expansion, said: “At 5,000sq ft, our new headquarters give us twice as much space as we had before, allowing us to expand the team and host more customer events and demonstrations. 

“I’m really pleased with the results, it looks fantastic, very professional and gives the business the space it needs. 

“We’ve stayed in Catterick – in fact, we’re only about 100 metres from our previous base – as we’ve always been here; we have access to a great pool of people and it’s very convenient, being just off the A1.” 

As well as moving into the new office, razorblue has taken on six new members of staff over the course of lockdown, including an account manager, marketing manager, senior IT engineer, IT engineer, project manager and .net developer. 

Dan commented: “It’s been great to have been able to continue to bring people into the team through a difficult period, especially as a number of our new recruits were potentially facing redundancy. 

“The recruitment process entailed a little bit of creativity, with using tech to hold interviews, but due to the nature of our business, we’ve got a lot of experience in working remotely.” 

Newly–recruited marketing manager Georgie Watson said: “Joining the razorblue team has been an incredible journey so far. The positive company culture shone through from the start of the interview process and I am so grateful to have joined an organisation that is growing 30 per cent year-on-year, especially when a lot of my friends are facing redundancies.  

“I spend the majority of my week working from home, which is a new experience for me – but the set-up and onboarding process was seamless and I have still managed to meet all of my colleagues via Microsoft Teams. I’ve been into the office a few times and it is such an amazing space – I love the kitchen/chill area and my favourite feature has to be the boiling water tap, as it means cups of tea on demand!” 

Dan said that razorblue was already well-equipped to adapt to the restrictions imposed during the lockdown, and has noticed a rise in demand for support with home-working solutions as businesses prepare for the future. 

He said: “We were already quite a remote–based business so we haven’t learned anything groundbreaking; I think some of our clients have though! 

“Due to the nature of the restrictions, we had to do a lot of work very quickly to deliver home–working solutions for firms that weren’t set up to run in that way.  

“We’re now seeing companies taking a more strategic approach to their tech investment, knowing that home–working will remain a big thing as time goes on. 

“Tech in general allows businesses to gain efficiencies over their competitors and grow their market share, which is going to become ever more important in an economy that’s contracting, rather than growing.”