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PHS Datashred acquires Manchester based Shred Easy
03 March 2011
Datashred acquired Shred Easy, a £5 million turnover business, to service their increasing number of professional services clients in Manchester. Datashred now has 14 destruction centres nationally.
Anthony Pearlgood, commercial director of PHS Datashred, said:
“Data destruction is a real growth sector, and as such we are expanding our business to cope with the rise in demand and in particular more stringent Data Protection Act regulations. We’ve been aware of the growth of the Shred Easy business for some time and were impressed with their strong customer relations, high service levels and expertise.
“Our key targets are very similar to theirs; we want to work with more businesses in the legal, accountancy, insurance and retail sectors. We will offer our customers improved service levels, enhanced security standards, as well as a more flexible range of services – including both on and off site shredding, recycling and waste disposal services and a more complete national network of depots.”
Each year, identity fraud in the UK costs more than £2.7 billion and affects over 1.8 million people, according to recent figures from the National Fraud Authority (NFA). To help combat this, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) now has the power to impose fines of up to £500,000 to businesses and organisations who are guilty of serious Data Protection Act breaches.
As the threat of identity fraud increases, and the punishments for negligent practices become increasingly severe, the need for businesses to be more vigilant about their data destruction is ever growing.
“PHS Datashred is now able to offer customers across the North West and Midlands, a faster and even more secure service, due to the acquisition of Shred Easy. We are now closer to our customers than ever before,” Anthony added.
Alan O’Brien, former chief executive of Shred Easy, said:
“This acquisition is the culmination of 10 years work, building the reputation and client base of the business with my partner Jim Watson. We’ve had many acquisition approaches over the years but we’ve resisted them all. With PHS Datashred we’ve finally found the right company that has similar values to our own and, as a bigger national player, they will be able to build on our work.”
Datashred