Author: Vicki Blair

Five leading advisory and training businesses have signed up to a partnership agreement with The Base in Warrington to help its high-growth tenants maximise their potential.

The grade-A offices, established to support companies in the advanced manufacturing and engineering sectors, now house more than 70 employees in a range of businesses and the new partnership is designed to speed up their access to leading-edge advice.

Five partners – Grant Thornton, FDR Law, Inventya Ltd/Enterprise Europe Network, Santander and Warrington’s University Technical College – have all signed a memorandum of understanding to work closely together on a range of initiatives and promotions that will support tenants at The Base.  The partners were selected because of their expertise in areas such as tax, R&D, innovation, law and skills development.

“This is a significant step forward in our promise to tenants to create Warrington’s leading hub for innovative, high-growth businesses. By allowing them to tap in to the expertise and talent of our partners we can help them grow even faster,” said Sylvie Morton, business development manager at Langtree, who manage the building on behalf of owners Warrington & Co.

A twelve month programme of clinics and joint events has been developed with the partners and will include subjects such as innovation, talent attraction and retention and Industry 4.0 technologies. Tenants are then free to contract with the partners on more detailed support, as required.

Commenting on their backing for the initiative, David Hawley at business and tax advisors Grant Thornton, said: “We are delighted to be working with The Base and offer support to the dynamic businesses that it will attract.  Our dedicated North West Business Growth team offers a range of specialist financial, taxation and assurance services that can add significant value and accelerate growth.  This is a very exciting development in the region and offers a great facility and infrastructure for business in Warrington.”

 

Warrington’s Grade A advanced manufacturing and engineering hub, The Base on Dallam Lane, has secured three new tenants.

A total of 2,000 sq ft of space has been let to three businesses, maintaining its reputation as a home for high growth SMEs.

Three offices have been let to Ixis, a digital transformation specialist leveraging the open source framework Drupal; Resulting IT, a technology-driven sales development business; and Avanite, a software company.  Between them the new tenants bring 24 new jobs to the building.

“Warrington is in the top ten in the UK for high growth SMEs and we developed The Base as the ultimate ‘next step’ home for companies that are starting to motor,” said Steve Park, managing director of Warrington & Co., Warrington’s partnership for growth who are also located at The Base.

“These latest lettings add to a growing list of customers that are creating the new Warrington economy.  There’s a real buzz about the building and we’ve seen a great start to 2017 with enquiries.”

The Base opened last year and was project managed by Warrington & Co. on behalf of Warrington Borough Council who own the property. Cllr Terry O’Neill, leader of Warrington Borough Council commented, “Warrington’s economy is booming and we are future proofing our economy through our ambitious framework for growth, Warrington Means Business.

“Supporting our businesses is a key element of WMB, particularly assisting and providing business space for new start-ups to assist them to grow which is why we invested in creating The Base. It’s very encouraging that these dynamic, new, high-tech businesses have chosen to locate at The Base.”

Commenting on the reasons behind the move, Francesco Giarletta of Avanite said: “We chose The Base as it gave us the flexibility to expand and it is a central location with great travel links. We are able to build a community with multiple businesses currently occupying the building, as well as share ideas and knowledge. Through The Base’s on-site business support we get help which allows us to grow our business in the most efficient way and finally we are excited about the prospect of becoming part of an innovative business location.”

Stuart Browne of Resulting IT says the move has helped them find space of ‘the right calibre’ as the firm continues to grow: “We’re a fast-growing company and needed working space of the right calibre in a central location.  The Base really fits the bill – it’s modern and has excellent facilities.  Plus, it’s great to be located in a founding building in an exciting new business location for the town.”

Mike Carter of Ixis said: “Since we moved to The Base, we didn’t just gain an office in an environment earmarked to become the Spinningfields of Warrington, but we also gained new partners in Resulting IT and Avanite who could add further value to our growing customer base. We are excited to explore further partnerships as more high growth businesses move in.”

Jayne Furnival, group property director at building managers Langtree, added: “Businesses want to cluster around like-minded companies and so we recently launched our BaseConnect networking platform to support this.   It’s going like a train, with more than 70 companies already signed up and this momentum augurs well for our lettings programme.”

Warrington boasts the sixth highest number of start-ups in the country, the highest in the north west and it is in the top ten places in the UK for high growth SMEs.  The Base was opened in January 2016 to help the town capitalise on this key strength and provides 50,000 sq ft of grade ‘A’ flexible space from a single desk up to a whole floor plate of 10,000 square feet.

A ‘mini Spinningfields’ will be created in Warrington according to the developers behind the town’s new central business district.

Speaking exclusively to Move Commercial, Steve Park, managing director at Warrington & Co., says The Base office development has had a “catalytic effect of raising awareness of Warrington”.

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