Member Article

Harrogate IT firm revived by relocation to Pakistan

After being faced with challenges from the recession and a weakened global economy, an I.T company from Harrogate, North Yorkshire, decided to up sticks and set up in Lahore, Pakistan.

Since opening its wholly-owned limited company in Pakistan, First 4 IT has regained business and has been voted one of the top ten employers in the country.

Mark Styles, the chief executive of the company said business activity had fallen sharply when he decided to move.

He said: “The telephone stopped ringing, business fell like a stone off a precipice, we needed to provide solutions that the market needed, competitively and quickly.”

First 4 IT was part of a group of firms that provided recruitment and IT services, however drop off in the premise based retail sector resulted in a stagnated market and a sharp loss of business.

After relocating to Lahore, Pakistan, the company has been able to grow through online and app developments, web marketing and by making use of advantageous conversion rates.

The business now employs 15 IT professionals at its Lahore base, and was voted the tenth top employer in the country by over 9,000 students and professionals in a survey carried out by YouGov and Rozee.pk.

Andrew Velvin, the Managing Director for First 4 IT commented: “It was always our intention to ensure our principles of investing in people were extended to our new operation.

“It was essential to locate safe, quality premises, to pursue equal opportunities for our workforce and engage them in our UK operation with the aid of high speed dedicated broadband connections and state of the art IT systems.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Miranda Dobson .