Its Alamo City workforce could approach 500 employees by the end of the year

Roughly three years after OKIN Process announced plans to develop its U.S. headquarters in San Antonio, the Prague-based business services company is considering building new space at Brooks as it outgrows the buildings it occupies there.

OKIN Process, which provides high-tech, high-touch back-office operations for clients including Fortune 10 companies and the Department of Justice, has expanded its operations into a second building on Brooks’ campus and is already thinking that it’s not enough. OKIN Process expects to add more than 100 new employees over the next 45 days, which could increase its Alamo City workforce to 350 people by late summer, CEO Tom Demarest said.

“We’re right on track to have 400 or 500 people by the end of the year,” Demarest said. “We’re getting good client diversity and I think some interesting work.”

That workforce expansion will strain OKIN’s headquarters space. While Covid-19 has revealed the capacity among many types of businesses to implement remote work or hybrid office models, OKIN’s ability to do so is limited because of its clients’ security requirements.

OKIN is considering two options as it fills a second building: expanding to a third existing structure on the site of the former Brooks Air Force Base or building a new headquarters from scratch that could accommodate the company’s long-term growth.

“We love the spot where we are at, the historic nature of the buildings. But it would be easier from a business standpoint with something we built from scratch,” Demarest said. “We’ve got several proposals from Brooks. We’re looking at those options.”

While OKIN has found solid footing in San Antonio, Demarest believes the growth the company is experiencing could have come sooner if not for Covid-19, which hit as it was opening its new headquarters and making its initial hires.

More disturbing, perhaps, to OKIN is that not more San Antonio organizations are doing business with it. Some, Demarest said, have chosen to outsource work that could be done here to companies in other states, even other countries.

“That’s probably my only disappointment,” Demarest said.

Article originally published here: Czech company weighing new HQ building at Brooks to house big growth