Business

Newry security firm Netwatch to double workforce in £18m expansion

Pictured from left, director of Mount Charles’ cleaning and support services division, Jonathan McKinlay with Paddy Finnegan, Netwatch European sales director and Cathal Geoghegan managing director of Mount Charles
Pictured from left, director of Mount Charles’ cleaning and support services division, Jonathan McKinlay with Paddy Finnegan, Netwatch European sales director and Cathal Geoghegan managing director of Mount Charles Pictured from left, director of Mount Charles’ cleaning and support services division, Jonathan McKinlay with Paddy Finnegan, Netwatch European sales director and Cathal Geoghegan managing director of Mount Charles
By Simon Cunningham

NEWRY security firm Netwatch hopes to double its workforce next year following an £18 million investment.

The company, provides advanced video processing technologies to proactively monitor and protect its clients’ assets.

The Carlow-headquartered firm is creating 85 new jobs - including 15 at its £4.5m Newry base.

The expansion is part of plans to boost by 30 per cent the number of Northern Ireland based contracts.

A strategic partnership with catering company Mount Charles has also been a major boost to growth.

Netwatch installs high quality security cameras, coupled with their proprietary intelligent software which intervenes as soon as security is breached.

Intervention specialists then verbally alert intruders they are being watched with a personalised warning, causing them to leave the scene before the damage is done.

The company's European sales director Paddy Finnegan said: “We are delighted to announce this expansion of our Newry base as a result of securing a number of high profile contracts from public utilities to blue chip organisations including Enva, Northern Ireland Electricity and Norbrook Laboratories since we launched here back in February.

“Our focus for the fourth quarter of 2016 and into 2017 is to grow our Northern Ireland business by 30 per cent; and to support that ambitious target we’re now actively recruiting talent in areas such as software and hardware engineering, marketing and sales."

Managing director of Mount Charles Cathal Geoghegan added: “We are confident that this new partnership with Netwatch will deliver added value to our client base throughout the island of Ireland.

“Businesses are increasingly looking for ‘bundled’ service contracts. We already deliver catering, cleaning, retail and vending contracts to a vast range of public and private sector clients across Ireland. The one thing we have not been able to offer, until now, was a bespoke, state of the art security solution.

“Combining our experience allows us to create a truly innovative offering and increase our influence in a very competitive market.”