In January, eMag Solutions culminated a process of selecting its European headquarters when it opened the new facility in Cardiff, Wales. eMag Solutions specializes in forensic computing. It provides services to companies and individuals in identifying, collecting, analyzing and presenting electronically stored information for compliance and regulatory uses, and as evidence in legal matters.
The company has a significant amount of business in the UK, and decided to locate in Cardiff to better serve those customers, among other reasons.
“Our company has a long and deep history in Wales,” said Brendan Sullivan, president and CEO of Atlanta-based eMag Solutions. “We began our history in Brynmawr and Abertillery as a former media manufacturer, and as we’ve progresses into a full-service litigation technology company, our business location has never been more important.
“We must have fast access to the major legal and financial markets in London, as well as access to a highly skilled and technical work force where employment loyalty is prevalent,” he added. “We feel Cardiff can offer us the right blend and look forward to continued expansion here.”
A strong work force is imperative for the type of work eMag Solutions performs, which includes searching and restoring data, retrieving deleted files and establishing clear audit trails during the investigation. By locating in Cardiff, the company has access to workers with the required computer skills and experience necessary.
A Great Place to Reach Europe
Ask most U.S. companies expanding in Europe, and one reason for growing in the UK quickly goes near the top of the list criteria: Location. There are other reasons, of course for companies to locate in the UK — an educate work force, no language barrier to overcome, and similar business and civil laws — but location is a big factor.
Operating in the UK allows companies to run operations on the same time zone as much of Europe. Speed-to-market is also increased through proximity to markets in London and other Western European countries.
“Our business is global and that means being located close to our customer base in the UK and the rest of Europe, as well as having the ability to easily travel to customers around the world,” said John Villadsen, vice president of worldwide operations for Aviza Technology Inc.
Aviza Technology, based in Scotts Valley, Calif., designs and manufactures semiconductor capital equipment and technologies used in the production of integrated circuits, which serve as the foundational components for electronics and consumer devices. The company has additional facilities in Europe and Asia.
For Aviza, expanding globally involves more than just opening a facility. Its strategy has been to hire a variety of local talent in every market it enters.
“Having a full operation of sales, service, engineering and a complete manufacturing facility in the UK gives us full reach to that region of the market,” Villadsen pointed out.
Not unlike other companies, Aviza entered the UK market through acquisition. It merged with UK-based Trikon Technologies in 2005. Aviza continued to operate the Trikon (now Aviza) facility in the UK, in Newport, South Wales.
“We had no intention of disrupting our operations and supported our customers,” Villadsen said.
A Strategy That Fits
Since the merger/acquisition of Trikon Technologies, executives of Aviza have been optimizing its operations around the world to take advantage of its worldwide facilities. The company views the UK site as a strategic location.
“The Newport site has been an established facility, and the work force there is extremely talented, hard working and dedicated,” Villadsen said. “The facility develops and manufactures some of Aviza’s key products, specifically those based on our single-wafer platform.
“So, the development work and manufacturing in Newport complements what’s being done here at our headquarters in Scott Valley,” he added. “For example, we recently transferred the manufacturing of one of our newer single-wafer products from Scotts Valley to Newport because of the expertise in building these types of systems.”
According to Villadsen, the system, called Celsior, is used for atomic layer deposition manufacturing, which is the process of depositing films on a silicon wafer one layer at a time.
“This sophisticated, leading-edge technology enables the development of smaller, faster, cheaper and more functional ICs to support advanced consumer devices,” he noted. “We see the locations as synergies to our business.”
French Firm Expands Presence in UK
MEGA International, a Paris-based business process modeling and enterprise architecture software manufacturer, announced in November that it was growing its UK operations into a larger office on the west side of London.
“Relocation to the new office in London signifies the highly successful progress the company has made in the UK, which includes an increase in sales revenue of[more than 70 percent since early last year,” said Ludovic Relandeau, managing director for MEGA in the UK.
“To support this successful growth we have also recruited more personnel in specialist and administrative roles and MEGA will be recruiting more people in 2007,” he pointed out.
Company officials cited easy access to transportation to the rest of the UK as a key reason for growing in the UK.
“With our well balanced range of proven products and services, and new products to be announced before the end of this year, our solutions are increasingly being seen as a good fit in government departments and financial services markets,” he said, “hence our move to the capital, where these activities are mostly centered.”
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