Sam brings hi-tech firm to Dalton Rd
Last updated 12:04, Monday, 18 August 2008
SAM Mall likes Barrow and says if his move into the town works out he could create dozens of jobs, maybe even up to 100 here, over the coming years.
The firms include the Parm Properties management and letting agency, a web design company called Newer Vision, the Moves and Changes online job vacancies site, and an online Moves and Changes job recruitment agency.
It will also become the HQ for a southern-based IT relocation company Hitech Computer Services.
The property may not have boosted shoppers’ choice in Barrow, but it has taken another forlorn property off the street, which still boasts 13 empty shops from one end to the other.
The site has had £300,000 pumped into buying and resurrecting it and in installing what Sam calls its “world connectivity” in the basement in the form of an expensive internet server.
With it he can get the information people need to them anywhere in the world within five seconds.
Up to £500,000 more investment in the building, equipment and jobs is planned by Sam.
He has had one or two adverse comments from locals telling him he is foolish to invest so much in the site.
He said: “I like Barrow and I think it is a bit disgraceful for local people to be knocking it down.
“What they don’t realise is that every single hi-tech business can be run from anywhere in the world and I want to give Barrow the benefit of the doubt.
“I will prove to them that I can run by business in London from Barrow.”
Mr Mall from Morecambe bought his first property in Barrow in Greengate Street, three years ago and pretty soon he had bought 15 buy to let properties in the town.
He has property in the Morecambe area and the Midlands too and a company that moves IT equipment fast for relocating firms in the London area including hi-tech firms, banks and solicitors.
Twenty one people work for his relocations firm, moving as many as 3,000 PCs in a weekend after meticulous planning.
A lot of firms in the south east tend to move every three years when leases are up, he said and firms get fined if they stay over lease dates, so special moving operations are required.
“It is like £10,000 a day if they don’t move so they have to move,” said Sam.
His Moves and Changes job website is going to be big he predicts.
“It is going to be national with salesmen in every city in the UK but with all the production and distribution and management done in Barrow,” he said.
It amuses him that despite being deeply involved in IT he has not a single IT sector qualification.
He said: “It proves you don’t have to have a masters degree to do something like this.”
He says the Parm Properties group will probably start with up to 10 staff in Barrow with more jobs in the future in areas like administration, tele marketing, telesales, accounts, graphic designers, IT managers, and web designers.
Mr Mall bought his first Barrow residential property in Greengate Street three years ago for cash after a run out from Morecambe.
The Parm Properties letting agency will handle property for landlords from a 30-mile radius.
Praising the town Sam says: “I think when you are here in Barrow you don’t realise what you have got.
“If you go to London and live there for a year you realise you have got the greenery and fresh air and friendliness.
“They are not polite in London but in Barrow you have got friendly people and the council have been very, very supportive.”
Sam who will be able to check his Barrow office using a miniature surveillance camera from wherever he is, even if he is in India.
He has used local contractors for the refurbishment of the property
“We have put in huge investment here. Nobody has helped us. We have not had any grants.”
He says his business success is because of his godfather who he names only by the initials, G M D, and because of his mum and dad.
He said: “It took us years to come here but we came and we love it.”
Several jobs are on offer now.
l Contact Sam on 07810 307922
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