Website provider launches event space in Preston

E-commerce website provider EKM has launched its own event space as a new commercial offer at its landmark premises in Preston.

The event space was originally built for in-house events at the company’s £3.5m offices on Caxton Road, Fulwood.

The offices, which are probably most famous for the three-storey slide employees can use to leave the building, took four years to design, plan and build.

Custom-built to include state-of-the-art office technology, an expansive kitchen, relaxation area and gym, they provide capacity for more than 250 employees to support anticipated growth.

Established in Burnley in 2002, EKM says it was the first cloud-based e-commerce platform in the UK.

Today, it claims to still be the biggest based in the UK, powering more than 70,000 online shops worldwide.

With in excess of 80 employees at a single site in Preston, EKM currently has a roughly equal UK market share to San Francisco-based competitor Shopify.

The company has now launched its in-house, designer, training and presentation auditorium as a hireable event space, aimed primarily at the government sector and other organisations with an interest in developing the local economy.

EKM founder, Antony Chesworth, said: “We built these facilities as a world-class productive environment for our world-class team, taking inspiration from the likes of Google and Facebook, because we want people to think of us in those terms.

“While we aim to compete with the best that Silicon Valley has to offer on a global stage, we’re fully invested in our people, and our local economy.

“That’s why we’ve decided to open up our event space for use by local organisations also invested in helping Lancashire to grow as a business region.”