Technology

Posted on November 12, 2019 by staff

Unicorn The Access Group plans £200m Midlands HQ

Technology

The Access Group is to open a Midlands HQ which will create hundreds of jobs.

The software unicorn based in Colchester has grown rapidly since a 2011 management buy-out and will set up a £20 million base at the Loughborough University Science and Enterprise Park.

The business has seen turnover grow from £143.1 million in 2018 to £214m in the past two years.

It now employs more than 2,000 staff in offices around the UK and is targeting £300m revenue this year.

There are around 500 people working in existing bases in Leicester, Lockington and Loughborough who will move to the new HQ in January 2021, with another 100 additional people recruited.

“On day one we will have 600 staff, but we will quickly fill that and we are recruiting right now,” chief sales officer Jon Jorgenson said at the topping out of the new office, according to the Leicester Mercury.

“We have created 250 jobs in the last year in this area alone. Loughborough had nobody when we took our current office on the university campus and that has grown to 250.

“One of the things we are already starting to explore is what the long-term plans for this site might be – it’s possible we’ll have first refusal on an adjacent plot.

“We have 23,000 customers now and that will be 43,000 in two years time so are doubling in size.

“We just want to get into the new office now – it’s going to be a great place for people to come to work. In a little over a year’s time an entire workforce will be based in one of the best offices in the East Midlands.

“It will make a great statement for us.”

Access provides software services to mid-market businesses in sectors such as hospitality, not-for-profit, supply chain and recruitment.