VAR European Electronique has claimed it has profited from Evesham Technology’s misfortune by recruiting staff and winning contracts from the stricken system builder.

European Electronique, based in Eynsham in Oxfordshire, has recruited seven staff members from Evesham over the past few months. Six of those have been appointed to positions in the company’s support, engineering and sales departments.

Another recruit from Evesham is Garry Street, who was appointed as European Electronique’s technical services manager in January. Street is responsible for overseeing some of the firm’s bigger contracts, including a £2.5m a year IT services deal with Oxfordshire County Council (OCC), which was held by Evesham until it went into administration.

European Electronique’s managing director Yolanta Gill said: “I am delighted with the staff we have acquired from Evesham, especially Garry Street who will drive the growth of our service division.

“It is not easy to find high calibre individuals. A number of the new recruits have been assigned to the OCC contract, because their familiarity with it provides continuity of superb service.”

Gill revealed that European Electronique had seen revenues grow by nearly 25 per cent in each of the past two years.

“The OCC contract is the biggest one we acquired from Evesham,” she said. “It was a very prestigious win for us and represents an important part of our projected growth.”

Nick Smith, managing director of system builder Elonex, which made an offer to buy Evesham last year, said: “We have picked up some of Evesham’s contracts, but I think we would have won those anyway.”

Evesham was unavailable for comment at the moment.