WHILE the stagnant economy has many firms tightening belts, a Winchester firm was yesterday (June 27) celebrating their expansion.

Box-it, the document management specialists, is headquartered at Winnall Down Farm, where Dame Mary Fagan, Hampshire's Lord-lieutenant, officially opened a new storage warehouse and shredding centre, calling it “an amazing facility”.

Dame Mary was joined by around 50 people, including the Mayor of Winchester, Cllr Ernie Jeffs and his wife, Barbara Jeffs.

Also present was Jonathan Tonge, head of corporate development at the Royal Mail, a key client for Box-it.

Mr Tonge said he was honoured to hand over the two millionth box for storage.

“You do place great trust in them to hand over your documents, but we have known them for a long time and they have proved themselves to be an incredibly valued partner for Royal Mail, so much so that we're entering a strategic partnership with them,” he said.

Over the last two years the firm has invested more than £1.5m in its expansion, employing over 150 people at its Winchester branch alone.

According to managing director, Simon Ellis, the secret of Box-it's success is simple.

“We help our clients save money. It's all about cost reduction. So for example, you're in an expensive building and storing documents in it, why not get rid of them and give them to us. But it's our digital business that is causing large expansion.

“PriceWaterhouseCoopers found that it costs local authorities about £13 to handle a single piece of post, and they touch that piece of post about 19 times in its lifecycle,” he said.

Box-it's service sees them receive their customer's post, open it and scan it, making it accessible to them and putting in place measures that ensure it is never lost.

In addition to paper and digital document management, the company provides business process management and shredding and confidential document destruction.

The new secure shredding facility can hold 100 tonnes of shredded paper per month, while the new warehouse at Winchester means storage capacity there has reached 350,000 boxes.