Member Article

Increase in document destruction signals workplace return, says The Shred Centre

The Shred Centre is witnessing a mini boom in document destruction as businesses prepare for a return to the workplace.

Patrick Stephens, founder and managing director of the County Durham-headquartered firm, said it has seen a significant increase in demand for its services across the UK in recent weeks.

The Shred Centre has also seen a similar spike in demand for its collection service, launched as a direct response to the pandemic, designed for those employees working from home.

Patrick said: “The reason behind this spike in demand is largely due to businesses preparing to reopen their workplaces.

“Several clients are also planning to introduce hybrid working practices, blending home and office working, allowing them to reduce overheads by moving into a smaller workspace.

“As a result, businesses are having a good sort out and are sending those documents that are no longer required for secure destruction.

“In addition, many of those staff who have been working from home for the past 15 months have also built up quite a collection of documents and print outs.

“It’s a clear sign that confidence is growing among businesses and that they are now planning a more longer-term future as the roll-out of vaccinations continues.”

The Shred Centre launched its new collection service last year to protect those businesses and organisations whose staff are working remotely.

It recognised that whilst most workplaces have stringent policies in place to ensure hard copy documents containing personal, sensitive, or confidential data are properly disposed of this is more difficult to apply outside the office.

As a result, it has been supplying business customers with extra document bags to distributed amongst staff working from home. Once full, they are returned to the workplace where they are taken away by The Shred Centre for destruction.

The family-run business, which has more than 20 years’ industry experience, already offered a home shredding service for individuals but decided to extend this to business customers to avoid any possible security breaches.

Patrick added: “This service makes it simple for those working from home to ensure all work-related documents they handle are easily and securely disposed of, whilst providing their employers with peace of mind.”

As well as document shredding, The Shred Centre, based on the Merrington Lane Industrial Estate, Spennymoor, also provides the destruction of hard drives, textiles, products of any kind together with CDs and media.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by News Gathering .