UK expansion for global software supplier

Industrial software supplier, COPA-DATA, is celebrating its continuous growth with the appointment of two new employees to its UK team. 

With headquarters in Salzburg, Austria, COPA-DATA has local sales and technical support in 46 countries. The expansion of the UK team will facilitate the company’s projected growth in this region.

Garry Forfar has joined COPA-DATA UK as Regional Manager for the North of the UK. With over 10 years’ experience at large engineering organisations, including Schneider Electric and ABB, Garry provides valuable knowledge of Britain’s engineering and manufacturing industries.

With copious experience as a contracts engineer and having spent the past six years as a solutions sales engineer, Garry has had extensive involvement of liaising with customers to ensure the correct project is delivered. 

For COPA-DATA, an organisation dedicated to helping manufacturers perform digital transformations, this skill will enable the company to accurately identify the needs of their customers, before deploying the correct software platform for them.

While COPA-DATA’s UK office is based in Cardiff, Wales, Garry is based in Scotland and will be responsible for managing zenon deployment in the North of the UK.

Matthew Joy has also been appointed as Technical Consultant at COPA-DATA UK. With an extensive background in production engineering and specifically control and instrumentation, Matthew brings a wealth of practical engineering knowledge to the team.

COPA-DATA’s software platform, zenon, is primarily used in energy applications, as well as traditional manufacturing settings. This includes the deployment of software for vertical sectors, such as automotive, food and beverage and pharmaceutical production.

In previous roles, Matthew has been responsible for fault finding tasks in production — a task which zenon can complete automatically. Matthew’s practical experience of manufacturing production provides him with a clear understanding of customers automation goals.

“As an industry, manufacturing is changing rapidly,” explained Martyn Williams, managing director of COPA-DATA UK. “Every facility in the country is looking for ways to improve productivity, reduce outgoings and improve energy consumption — and embarking on a digital transformation project is an ideal way to begin this change.

“There are already 135,000 installed zenon systems worldwide. This is across the food and beverage, energy, automotive and pharmaceutical sectors. COPA-DATA’s rapid growth in the UK, and the requirement to employ two new members of staff, reflects the industry’s growing need to improve the way it controls and monitors its operation.”