UK mobile workforce technology company BigChange is establishing a strong presence in Europe to enable expansion plans while countering a no-deal Brexit.

The BigChange France operation is being run as a wholly owned subsidiary led by Frederic Dupeyron, who joined the business at the start of the year

The Leeds-based company offers its JobWatch paperless solutions as a means for fleets to plan, manage, schedule and track mobile workforces, and has now established a subsidiary business in France to spearhead its move into mainland Europe and recruited a reseller partner to accelerate the adoption of its JobWatch system in Cyprus and Greece.

The BigChange France operation is being run as a wholly owned subsidiary led by Frederic Dupeyron, who joined the company as executive vice president for Europe in January to help spearhead the expansion plans. BigChange has established a sales and marketing office in Paris, as well as a dedicated customer support facility in Marseille.

BigChange has also signed a reseller agreement to operate in Cyprus and Greece with JobWatch Cyprus, a new company established by Cypriot entrepreneur Andys Sofroniou to sell BigChange’s technology. Sofroniou is establishing a business development and technical support operation in Nicosia and has secured four new customers for BigChange already.

Sofroniou is also the managing director of Handy’s Security Systems, which became BigChange’s first customer in Cyprus in 2018. Sofroniou approached BigChange to establish a reseller partnership following the successful adoption of its JobWatch technology at Handy’s.

Martin Port, founder and CEO of BigChange, said: “We want to make BigChange a £100m  business and that means accelerating our international expansion efforts. By moving into France and establishing a partnership to cover Cyprus and Greece we are opening up a number of new markets, putting in place excellent sales and customer support people to delight our customers, and insulating the business from the effects of a potential no-deal Brexit.”

Frederic Dupeyron, executive vice president for Europe at BigChange, added: “Organisations worldwide are being challenged to improve service, become more efficient and eliminate paperwork and manual processes from their operations. Opening offices in France is a significant first step in our international expansion plans. Establishing a presence here means we can better serve customers and drive faster expansion for BigChange in mainland Europe.”