Restore moves records on

30 September 2012

Restore has had a busy two years. From a core competency in records management it has grown to include a host of other related services

Restore plc is a publicly quoted support services company with a primary focus on providing office services, including records management, document scanning, secure shredding and recycling, office removals and IT relocation. They aim to give their customers the benefits of a single point of contact for a variety of services, along with access to a broad knowledge base and industry-leading expertise. Having steadily built up the Group through acquisitions, they are now UK-wide in coverage, and are a leading provider in the office services market.

Two years of transformation
Since 2010, Restore plc has grown dramatically, having focused its energies on the potential offered by the office services expertise within the Group. Two years ago, its core business was the records management company, Restore Ltd, based in Redhill, Surrey, with storage facilities in Redhill, Paddock Wood, Wiltshire and Launceston, and the scanning company, Document Control Services, based in Peterborough. It now has four divisions: records management; office relocations; secure shredding and recycling; and document scanning.

This growth in services and geographical spread has come from a targeted acquisitions strategy which added Datacare in Oxfordshire (September 2010), Formsafe in Sussex (with further storage facilities in Aberdare in Wales) (December 2010), Sargents Ltd in Kent (April 2011), Management Archives in Leeds (July 2011), Paterson Data Management in Glasgow (September 2011), Brunswick Document Management in Middlesbrough (November 2011), Harrow Green which has UK-wide branches (February 2012), and ROC Relocations (May 2012).

Companies in the Restore Group
Restore is the records management division, offering near and deep storage, off-site tape storage, and file tracking and management. The company was formed in 1995 and has grown primarily through customer referrals. It manages millions of archive boxes of document files, film and computer-tapes for many blue-chip organisations, including leading accountancy, corporate, financial, insurance, law and media firms, as well as local authorities, hospital trusts and other government bodies. The company manages a wealth of client data from lawyers’ deeds to hospital patient records and X-rays. Customers count on Restore to help them meet legal and compliance requirements, be prepared for possible disaster recovery needs, and to give them speedy access to their information.

Built up through a series of recent acquisitions, Restore operates across mainland Britain from thirteen sites. The facilities include 200,000m2 (over 2 million square feet) of secure, flood-proof space, where customers’ documents are stored safely and securely, with close monitoring of temperature and humidity. Back-up tapes for disaster recovery, along with archived film, microfilm and other sensitive media, are kept in special vaults. All storage is away from the risks presented by large cities, industrial areas and water tables; specific data centres require staff to have government-approved security clearance, and are CCTV monitored 24 hours a day.

Document Control Services is one of the country's leading document conversion and data management specialists. Operating from its site in Peterborough, it serves national and international clients working across a wide spectrum of business sectors. The company’s background of working for major corporations goes back to 1984 when DCS found new ways to capture the necessary data to support projects in the oil and gas industry. Building on this expertise the company extended its services into other sectors where high-quality, cost-effective services were needed. They have developed a range of services including document digitisation, indexing and image-tracing.

In the last year, responding to customer demand, Restore plc added secure shredding and recycling to its services; Restore Shred was formed in October 2011. It operates from Woolwich, south-east London, where it recently opened a new state-of-the-art facility with capacity in excess of 15,000 tonnes a year. In line with Restore plc’s aim to increase its geographical coverage, it is expected that Restore Shred will be expanding beyond the south-east of England during the next year.

Restore plc is the UK market leader in office relocation with two businesses:
Harrow Green, founded in 1983 and acquired by Restore plc in February 2012, provides commercial relocations, storage, records management, furniture supply and office fit-out from eight locations across the UK. It also offers international services through EMS and IT relocation through Relocom. It has a wide and diverse customer base, from small, local businesses to international corporate organisations, and it serves a broad range of public sector clients including local authorities, hospitals, schools and universities, libraries and museums. It is the foremost business relocation company in the UK.

Sargents, acquired in April 2011, based in south-east London, offers professionally managed commercial relocation, general and specialist storage, furniture hire, waste management and furniture reclamation. Founded in 1989, the company has built up a large customer base and it now serves hundreds of customers drawn from both the public and private sectors.

The office services sector
Records management is a crucial area of office services, as compliance legislation and legal requirements mean that all organisations have growing needs to store and access a wide variety of documents. Every day, organisations create new pieces of information which legislation demands must be stored and protected, but readily available when needed.
The Restore plc companies offer the complete range of records management services, from organising, labelling and barcoding through to correct storage, and eventually, if necessary, secure disposal. Sometimes customers simply need large amounts of documents to be stored safely to meet compliance regulations. At other times, specialist work on important documents is required. (DCS have carried out high-quality scanning and indexing projects on historical documentation, the oldest document processed to date being a hand written notebook dating from 1458.) Other requirements may be for on-line access to scanned documents, same-day retrieval of legal papers, or high-volume shredding and recycling. The Restore companies have the expertise and technology to offer all these integrated services according to their customers’ demands.

Office relocations may be a rare event for a small business, or an ongoing part of a large firm’s operations. Either way, it is imperative that moves are professionally managed, allowing the smooth running of the company to continue. Restore plc see facilities management as a profession, and Sargents recently joined with Skills Training UK to create an apprenticeship programme, formalising the skills and training needed to provide the highest quality in office relocations. Meanwhile Harrow Green's forward-thinking and consultative approach to workplace change management has been recognised independently, with five prestigious partnership awards since 1997, including one for its innovative training centre.

Customer service
All Restore plc’s companies pride themselves on having consistently high standards of service delivery and this has brought them extremely strong customer retention. As each of the companies has its own identity, local knowledge and personal touch, they can stay close to their customers and responsive to their needs, developing long-standing relationships. With Restore plc behind them, each company is strengthened by the sharing of industry expertise and solid investment for the future. Customers of one company can look to the others in the Group, knowing they will receive joined-up services with the high quality of customer care they have come to expect.

The future
Restore plc has an exciting growth platform in office-based services and other business-to-business support services. This growth is expected to be generated both organically and through acquisitions. Its strength is its understanding of the market in which it operates, and the needs of its customers.