ICM to develop 1,700 seat outer London business continuity centre

ICM Computer Group plc, the UK-based business continuity provider has acquired a new site in London, which will become ICM's twelfth and largest recovery centre.

After a £3.5m specialist refit, the 73,000 sq ft site centre in Romford will provide up to 1,700 office and dealing room disaster recovery and business continuity positions, together with data centre facilities.

Designed principally for financial institutions and the growing number of small and medium organisations that require out of central London disaster recovery and business continuity services, ICM expects the site to start operations in early 2006 and it will be fully functioning by spring 2006.

As a leading provider of alternative workplace facilities across the UK, ICM has identified substantial customer demand for business continuity facilities outside central London. According to ICM, this is partly due to regulatory pressure and changing risk dynamics causing organisations to reassess their existing business recovery requirements.

This new business continuity centre substantially extends ICM's existing outer London recovery strategy. Once fully operational the site will enable ICM to provide facilities for 2,800 recovery positions to the London market and over 5,000 recovery positions across the UK.

The start up and carrying costs of the centre will impact on the Group's profitability in the current financial year. The refitting costs will be capitalised. However, ICM has already signed up one substantial international bank with a number of others in advanced discussions. Given the considerable

interest in the centre, ICM’s Board expects that the centre will reach break-even sometime in 2006.

Barry Roberts, ICM's chief executive commented:

“This latest and exciting development to our business continuity portfolio signals our intent to lead the market in the widening provision of business continuity services. Not only is this the largest site we have acquired with

1,700 seat capacity, but it addresses the substantial demand from London clients who are facing real changes in risk dynamics.

“Financial institutions and SMEs are now looking for business continuity centres which the majority of their key staff can access without having to be reliant upon the capital's transport infrastructure. With networked centres operating in High Wycombe, Sevenoaks and shortly Romford, we will be well placed to meet this demand.

“Although the start up costs will hold back the Group's earnings over the next few months, we are delighted by the level of customer demand. We have already signed up one leading international bank and we are currently working with a number of other prospects.”

•Date: 11th October 2005 • Region: UK • Type: Article •Topic: Recovery facilities
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