The Brightest and Best of London Thames Gateway
The last five years has seen many highlights for Gateway to London, with firms of all types and sizes relocating to London Thames Gateway or expanding and growing their existing operations. We have been, and continue to be, hugely impressed with the companies we work with. It would take many pages to list all of these so we have brought you three examples of companies we have worked with that reflect the continuing growth of businesses across the region.
Swatch Group
Last month, assisted by Gateway to London, The Swatch Group Ltd, the biggest watch manufacturer in the world, moved into Building 1000 in The Royals Business Park. The swiss company has taken approximately 12,000 sq ft in the prime office develoment, benefiting from its affordable rental fees and neighbouring London City Airport's connections to Switzerland and key European business destinations.
The Swatch Group has now fulfilled its plans to have a London postcode and is benefiting from east London's regeneration. The company was given extensive relocation support, along with advice on grant availability and recruitment from Gateway to London and London foreign direct investment agency, Think London. The company's new London base accommodates 85 employees - mostly new starters - with a small number of relocated staff from Southampton.
The Swatch Group employs 20,000 staff worldwide. Its brands include: Breguet, Blancpain, Jaquet Droz, Glashütte Original, Union Glashütte, Léon Hatot, Omega, Rado, Longines, Swatch, Tissot, Calvin Klein, Certina, Mido, Pierre Bal-main, Hamilton, Flik Flak and Endura.
Dairy Crest
Dairy Crest's major processing facility for London and the south east is located in Chadwell Heath. In November 2001 the company completed a £22 million investment creating the UK's first ‘super dairy', doubling the site's capacity and creating a state- of-the-art facility processing 400 million litres of milk per year.
In addition to the new investment to increase the capacity of the operation, the company was also considering how they could further expand the site. Plans to secure this long term expansion led to Dairy Crest entering into discussions with the London Borough of Barking & Dagenham. They discussed the surrounding land and its commercial development potential. These broke down at an early stage as the Council was giving serious consideration to residential development surrounding their site.
The company was concerned that residential development so close to the site would have a detrimental effect on their business, due to restrictions in the plant's operating hours and practices.
Gateway to London (GtL) began working with Dairy Crest at the end of 2003, following a business development meeting with their site director. The background issues concerning the surrounding land and its development were raised and as a result, GtL set out to re-open a dialogue amongst all parties, and facilitated a meeting with English Partnerships, London Borough of Barking & Dagenham, the London Development Agency and Dairy Crest, to agree a way forward.
The meeting resulted in a positive outcome for all parties, with the company now fully engaged in the consultation process surrounding proposed residential developments. The future of one of the area's most well known and major employers in the region has been secured and Dairy Crest is now confident of its future expansion plans.
Nicholls & Clarke
The Nicholls and Clarke www.nichollsandclarke.com Group of Companies (N&C) is a business dedicated to the manufacture and supply of the finest building materials. N&C prides itself on its extensive research and design work that allows each company within the group to develop inspirational and affordable products that meet the changing demands of the construction industry.
N&C Glass is the UK's largest independent glass processor and distributor, and has been a major employer in London Thames Gateway for 25 years. Following the awarding of the 2012 Olympics and Paralympic Games to London in 2005, the company needed to move from its existing base on Bow Industrial Park. Working with the London Development Agency, Gateway to London carried out a full property search in a specifically targeted area and then presented a series of options for new premises, including the eventual choice, Beckton Waterfront.
Now open, the new Beckton site comprises 34,000 sq ft of floorspace, has ground source heat pumps, water efficient appliances using grey water, and solar energy panels - features which together result in a 26% reduction in carbon emissions. The new building is judged to be ‘excellent' by environmental assessors, and is an important step for N&C towards gaining the environmental management standard ISO14001.
Since moving, the company has purchased additional lorries to add to the Group fleet of over 120, which has enabled the company to cut lead times on deliveries whilst maintaining N&C's impeccable reputation for quality.
Stephen Forbes of Nicholls and Clarke says "With the support of Gateway to London, we were able to relocate to a much larger and self contained unit in Beckton. The increase in space will allow for significant future growth of the business, while also allowing the site to take full advantage of the new commercial opportunities that will become available as the London Thames Gateway area develops."
Somethin' Else
Leading production company Somethin' Else www.somethinelse.com are one the most successful creative firms in London Thames Gateway and one of the largest cross platform production companies in the UK. They are the leading independent producer of radio in the UK and overseas, a top ten producer of TV entertainment, with a whole host of award-winning interactive entertainment to their credit, including web media, games and mobile content. They also operate one of the most exciting talent management agencies in the UK.
Somethin' Else was formed 16 years ago, and by last year had grown to over 61 permanent staff. The company was approaching its space limit at its current offices on Old Nichol Street in Shoreditch and contacted Gateway to London to see if there were opportunities to relocate in the nearby area.
Working with local agency Invest in Hackney, Gateway to London tracked down the most relevant properties already on, and coming onto, the market and was able to recommend new offices locally in Old Street. The company's move to its new premises crucially enabled it to retain all its existing staff, as well as create a further 31 new positions.
Sonita Alleyne, Chief Executive Officer, "Since moving in May 2007, we have really grown as a business. The media sector in east London is really vibrant and we feel we are in the right space. Our new space is much more creative. All our staff have time to invent! As part of our move we created a purpose built studio complex, which has allowed us to start a facilities business. We have been very pleased with the support from the Gateway to London team. Most importantly they took time to understand our business and our growth plans."
