On Sunday, February 14, Quartix reached its 15th birthday. They have grown from the four founders into an international business with offices in the UK, France and the US, employing over 100. They’ve installed almost 250,000 units for more than 7,000 customers and they have supplied telematics systems for 12 young-driver insurance products. Quartix has won numerous awards, including the Cambridge Business Award’s Business of the Year in 2015; has been named one of the ‘1000 Companies to Inspire Britain’, and the company has even floated on the AIM.
But it all started with a single sale. These days, Quartix has a sales team of almost a dozen dedicated people, but back in autumn 2001, it was up to founding director, Andy Walters, to seek out their first customer. He found them the old-fashioned way, in the phonebook, after he called every security company that was listed. Many of them took their number, but in the end, only one, Broadland Guarding Services Ltd, called him back.
For 25 years, Broadland Guarding has been providing manned guarding, public space surveillance, mobile response and key holding from their head office in Norwich, as well as full on-site security training. A few weeks after making contact, Andy Walters himself went out to their site and installed their test units. A month later, they received Quartix invoice #1. It was a one month trial that has become a 15-year partnership.
The guarding contractor introduced Quartix to other clients. In fact, Quartix has installed 200-plus units based on those introductions. The technology has evolved, but some of their oldest units are still installed in the guard firm’s fleet and still working. Pictured are Tarnya Ramsker, Operations Controller; Karen Bloomfield, Director and Kirk Sherratt, Contracts Manager.
Phil House, Director of Broadland Guarding, says: ‘We have stayed with Quartix for 15 years because the system provides us with everything we require it to do. We have always found the units to be efficient and reliable and the company to be customer-focused and approachable. Our founder, the late Brian Geary, was always very proactive in giving local companies with innovative ideas a chance, and Quartix proved to be one of the success stories. He was proud that we were their first customer. We look forward to continuing our partnership for the next 15 years. Congratulations to everyone at Quartix.’
