Ashford Stacks Up For The Document Warehouse

Following assistance from Locate in Kent, The Document Warehouse, a leading South-African based archiving and document storage specialist, has set up its first UK office in Ashford. The company, already operating in eight countries around the world, has taken a 3.5 acre site at Orchard House, Henwood Industrial Estate, as its UK headquarters. It hopes to create 400 jobs nationally, 200 of which will be in Kent.

The Document Warehouse’s Ashford premises will serve businesses in London, Kent and Medway, providing physical document archiving, scanning, destruction, a mailroom service for paperless offices and archival stationery supplies. It will handle all legal requirements and compliance for managing and archiving data on and offsite, and a disaster recovery facility, which is being developed at the Ashford premises, will be operational within six months.

Investment promotion agency Locate in Kent began working with the company in June 2010, arranging tours of sites and properties around the county and introducing local businesses providing creative, legal, financial and recruitment services. The Document Warehouse moved into the building in May and has already won the largest government archival contract to be awarded this year from the London area.

Ryan Hughes, Managing Director of The Document Warehouse, said: “Once we decided to enter the UK market, we knew we needed to be in the South East as it’s a highly populated area and has a large number of SMEs requiring our kind of services. We also wanted a location that would give us the best access to both UK and European markets – Ashford does just that. We can be in London in less than 40 minutes via the high speed rail link and in France in under an hour by Eurostar.

“We’ve conducted business all over the world and we’ve never encountered an organisation such as Locate in Kent – the level of service, information and advice they have given us has been by far the best I have ever experienced in corporate relocation. I’d recommend their services to any company considering investing in the area.”

Paul Wookey, Chief Executive of Locate in Kent, said: “It’s not always easy for a foreign-owned company to expand into new markets, and we were pleased to have been able to work with Ashford Borough Council to help make The Document Warehouse’s move into the county as seamless as possible.”

For further information about The Document Warehouse, call 0844 826 4686 or email ryan@thedocumentwarehouse.co.uk. For more about Locate in Kent call 01732 520700 and to search for commercial property in Kent and Medway or visit www.commercialpropertykent.com.