Managing Our Way To Growth

In the many years since Kefron was founded 34 years ago, last week was particularly special for our company.

At an event in Dublin’s Convention Centre last Thursday, Kefron Group won an award for Best Managed Company 2022.

It was a privilege to be awarded amongst such a high calibre of companies. With a focus that looked beyond financial performance at areas such as environmental, social and governance standards, strategic planning and talent acquisition, the detailed judging process evaluated the entire management team and business strategy.

As a family-owned business, now run by the second generation, Kefron has always been driven by a focus on its people and a shared set of values, particularly innovation. This award is testament to that, as well as the strong corporate structures put in place by our founders and leadership teams.

Innovation

From our humble beginnings in Dublin, Kefron has grown from a small document storage company in 1989 to a document and information management business, operating across seven locations in the UK and Ireland. Key to this success has been a willingness to see the need for and undergo transformational change, something which has allowed us not only to stay relevant but to thrive in today’s market. Not long after our founders created the self-storage service, a chance enquiry from a customer led to the creation of our records management service to complement our existing business. Soon after, our founders spotted an opportunity to add document destruction services to Kefron’s portfolio, something which subsequently became a significant business in its own right.

This entrepreneurial spirit has filtered down to the second generation with a continued focus on emerging trends. It was this that led us to ask ourselves in 2014 how we could take all of the key capabilities we had learned and developed over the last 30 years in physical paper management and apply them to digital management. The result was the creation of our Accounts Payable Invoice Automation platform in 2018. Since that time, we have announced an exciting new partnership with?cybersecurity group?Exclusive Networks?which has seen a €1m investment to expand our Accounts Payable platform into new markets, as well as the creation of 40 new jobs in the areas of emerging technology, customer experience and support.?

People

While our company has grown and pivoted many times over the course of the last 30 years, underpinning this growth has been the hard work, dedication and passion of our people. At Kefron, we understand that family and life are as important, if not more so, than work, and, every day, we strive to foster a supportive, caring environment that facilitates the growth and development of our employees.

This includes ensuring that our people feel connected to and understand the ways in which their work is supporting our group purpose. We know that we can only realise this purpose with the help of employees who understand how their work is supporting this vision and, as part of this, we recently created the new role of Head of People and Performance to ensure, among other key people responsibilities, that the way in which we communicate our purpose and strategy throughout the company is succinct, accessible and relatable.

Outlook

As we look to the future, creating a supportive environment for our employees in which to thrive and ensuring they feel connected to our strategy and purpose has never been more important.

With plans to grow our group revenue by an average of 13% per annum in the next two years, Kefron’s strategy is currently at one of its most exciting junctures, with massive growth potential across all three business units in our current markets of Ireland, UK and beyond. ?

We know that without the values that have guided us this far – a willingness to take risks, putting our people first and creating a positive environment in which to come to work to everyday - we won’t be able to achieve these goals.

There are many factors that go into achieving an award of this nature, but by remaining true to these key values, we can help to ensure that our company remains strong into the future. I’d like to thank each and every staff member across Kefron Group for all the hard work that went into achieving this award and I look forward to continuing this journey with you all in the months and years to come.?