Opta Expands Into New Northern Home
01st August 2009
Opta today sealed a move to new premises for its north of England operation in a move that will support its plans for expansion in the future.
The company will relocate the entire staff of its Harrogate operations centre to a new base in Leeds, close to the city centre.
The initial move will be followed by a period of expansion and recruitment, making the most of the new centre’s improved accessibility.
Opta’s Harrogate office has been the hub for most of the company’s rugby work and some of its other data activities since 2001.
“It was the right place to be. We were tenants of Sky and they were and still are a major customer,” said Rob Lowe, Opta’s Product Director.
“But our growth has been rapid and as we expanded our data collection operation we needed to find somewhere else. Our new centre has everything we need in a city that is well known for sport and media.”
Leeds will house all of Opta’s work on English and French rugby. As yet there are no plans to move work from the company’s main office in London, but that may change as the business expands further.
“We are covering French rugby from Leeds rather than London simply because we have the space to bring all the rugby under one roof,” said Rob.
“We have the capacity to cover football from here if the workload increases but it’s more likely that we’ll increase our activities in cricket and in a lot of European sports like handball, basketball and volleyball.
“That’s partly because we have so many customers in mainland Europe but it’s also because having a centre in the middle of Leeds means we are in the ideal location to recruit overseas students, who are a great source of expertise in such sports.
Ged Holmes, who joined Opta recently as Sales and Marketing Director, will be based in the new office.
“The expansion of the business meant we needed more operational space – we were bursting at the seams,” he said.
“We will have about 25 people in the new office but we expect to double that number in the next two years. Sales and marketing will be based in Leeds, as will product management. Leeds is very strong in terms of the sports information industry so we don’t expect recruitment to be a problem.”
