NEWS INTERVIEW Daisy targets Scotland


Daisy Group has extended its reach across the border having established a strong Scottish foothold. The move also marks a strategic step away from consolidating the industry towards a policy of organic growth. Here’s the story...


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aisy Group has opened its first Scotland office having identified


the country as a key area for investment and business development. The North Lanarkshire foothold boasts a ready-made sales and engineering force gained through the acquisition of SpiriTel in November 2010, a deal that included Scots telecoms provider Nessco. Daisy is now investing in a permanent centre at the former Nessco site in Bellshill. At the time of the acquisition there were six employs based there, a number which has now grown to 22.


Gareth Kirkwood, Daisy’s Chief Operating Officer, says the company has ambitious plans for growth in Scotland. He commented: “Scottish businesses are renowned for innovating to compete on a global stage and we feel we have the products and the support team to


help them achieve their aims. Our strong regional presence and an experienced team give us the belief to make real strides in growing our business and our team in Scotland, contributing to the Scottish economy’s legacy of cultivating businesses in the IT and communications sector.”


While Kirkwood said that there may be more acquisitions from time to time, the launch of Daisy Scotland signalled a new direction for the company, coinciding with a move away from its acquisition and integration strategy to more organic channels of growth. “There’s more to Daisy these days than an acquisition story,” Kirkwood told Comms Dealer. “We’ve grown the business through acquisition and integration over the last year and a half, but what we’re determined to do is to build the business organically from here.”


There’s more to us than an acquisition story


24 COMMS DEALER JULY 2011


Cutting the ribbon (l-r) Gareth Kirkwood and Graham Roger


Kirkwood, who was born in Kilmarnock and has played cricket for Scotland, said that he hoped Scottish customers would take advantage of technologies like hosted VoIP and hosted data in order to continue the country’s reputation for innovation. “What we inherited when we bought Spiritel was a small presence in Scotland for a big user base and what we considered to be a large opportunity,” Kirkwood explained. “We’ve got the full set of communications products giving us an opportunity to cross-sell. The base that we’ve inherited tends to be single product or two product based. We’ve got a lot more to offer our customers here.”


Regional Sales Manager Graham Roger, former Head of Business Sales at Thus, is to head up Daisy Scotland. He said that the while more


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competition should be welcomed in the Scottish market it will be important to exercise caution. “We’re not trying to bite off too much too quickly so large multi-national corporations will be avoided,” Roger said. “But there’s a whole raft of enterprise and smaller corporates that need consultancy and design work.”


Market gains


Rogers estimates telecoms spend across the public and private sector in Scotland to be around £1.2 billion a year, and a local office that can deliver economies of scale from the larger group is vital to capturing more of the market. “Having a local presence is very important,” he said. “That doesn’t mean we won’t use the size of Daisy for other parts of the business, like billing, but it keeps the front end sharp


and local and we’ll build confidence that way.”


Kirkwood agrees: “Scottish businesses prefer to deal with people who understand them. That doesn’t mean you have to wear a kilt and carry the bagpipes into every customer meeting, it just means that you need to deal with people who understand the particular idiosyncrasies of the Scottish market from a sales point of view and from an operational and customer support viewpoint.”


The Scotland team serves 4,500 business accounts across the country, providing comms services including data, mobile, systems, maintenance and voice. Customers include Stena Drilling, National Galleries of Scotland and public sector bodies including NHS Highland, NHS Orkney and Midlothian Council.


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