Business

Brexit holds no fear for growing Belfast IT disposal firm

Managing director of Asset Management Ireland (AMI) , Philip McMichael believes the business can continue on its upward trajectory
Managing director of Asset Management Ireland (AMI) , Philip McMichael believes the business can continue on its upward trajectory Managing director of Asset Management Ireland (AMI) , Philip McMichael believes the business can continue on its upward trajectory

THE head of a multi-million pound Belfast business, which grew out of a computer shop on the Boucher Road believes Brexit could present a possible opportunity for growth in the coming years.

Ballymoney entrepreneur Philip McMichael is managing director of Asset Management Ireland (AMI), the largest secure IT disposal company on the island of Ireland.

After initially running a computer repair shop with a small team on the Boucher Road in Belfast Mr McMichael identified a gap in the market for securely disposing of old computers and IT equipment and recovering value from them. The rest as they say is history.

"We were selling second hand computers and essentially this opportunity came out of the hat and we started moving into going and collecting the equipment, doing the data removal and data processing and then either reselling or recycling the equipment after that. So it has grown from there."

Since AMI's inception in 2001 the company has grown to become a £4 million turnover organisation with two facilities in Newtownabbey and Dublin and a staff of 50 people. The company now services a wide range of private and public sector clients throughout Ireland and the UK, with its expanding client-base consisting of a quarter of Ireland’s 200 largest IT user organisations, including data centres, banks, blue-chip corporations and government departments.

It has also recently announced that it returned £1.8 million to clients in 2017 through the collection and resale of items such as PCs and laptops. The company resold 23,324 PCs and laptops in 2017, and securely processed 371,639 data-bearing items in total.

"Like everything in IT, the vast volumes of computers, mobile devices and servers that are in use nowadays compared to even 15 years ago is immense. So off the back of that growth in technology, we've been able to grow the service and grow the markets that we work in."

"I couldn’t have envisaged having the pay roll that we have, the strength in depth of staff that we now have and the strength of the customer base. We believe we’re leaders in what we do and how we do security and we’re leaders in Ireland in our field. It’s something that I’m very proud that we’ve been able to achieve."

In the immediate future the company is preparing for the imminent introduction of the new General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) on May 25.

Designed to strengthen and unify data protection for individuals across the European Union local companies could face fines of up to €20 million or 4 per cent of annual turnover if they do not comply.

Mr McMichael believes the new law is a "game changer", which will remain in place even after the UK leaves the EU.

"It can’t really change and there’s no way I can see that changing. The same sort of laws will be in place in the UK," he said.

“I think already people are sitting up and taking note that you have to have a proper system of data disposal and you have to manage that disposal process properly. It doesn’t matter how small your business is, if you hold data about anyone then you have to comply with this legislation once it comes into force. It certainly is one of those things you’re talking about an awful lot more and I’d expect a further uplift over the next few months and in the next year."

Further down the line and Brexit could also present an "opportunity" for the business, with AMI's presence on both sides of the border a possible advantage.

"At the end of the day I think we’ve got a bit of insurance with the fact we have a foot in both camps no matter what happens and I think it is something that will stand us in good stead."

Brexit and GPDR aside Mr McMichael believes the structures are now in place at the company to continue on an upward trajectory for the foreseeable future.

"Certainly we would see the business growing. At the end of the day in three or four years we’ve essentially doubled the size of the business, doubled the size of our staff in the business so we can’t see any reason why that’s not going to continue and we have opportunities for different parts of the business, both in Ireland and the UK. To double the business in the next couple of years would probably be quite difficult to do, but to grow the business by 40/50 per cent in that time is something we would expect to achieve."

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