Melbourne moves to new HQ – complete with potting shed and dining room
SERVER hosting provider Melbourne has invested £150,000 in its new head office at Manchester Technopark that includes a kitchen housed in a potting shed and art deco dining room.
It has now moved its 25 staff to Lovell House on the park, where it has taken more than 6,000 sq ft of office space – more than double the size of its previous facilities at Turing House.
Modelled around different areas of the home, the new work space has a kitchen housed in a potting shed, a grassed picnic area for lunches and informal meetings, an art deco dining room, a library and a retro quiet space. There will be an industrial hub for the 24/7 support team, while for moments of true creativity, visitors can climb into Narnia via the Melbourne wardrobe.
Daniel Keighron-Foster, managing director, said: “At Melbourne our most important asset is our team. That’s why we wanted to create a space that would reflect the ethos of the company – a family-run business that puts its staff at the heart of everything we do.
“For us, creativity and productivity go hand in hand. If people are inspired by their working environments they are more likely to perform to the best of their ability. Grey and boring is not what we’re about and this new space completely reflects our personality.”
Heather Wright is co-founding director of corporate and personal development company Advance Performance. She said: “It sounds simple, but being happy at work is an easy way to boost motivation. Psychological research shows time and again that people are far more productive when their office building and environment create a positive atmosphere.”
As well as accommodating future expansion, the move has freed up an additional 1,200 sq ft of rack space at its old head office Turing House, providing a boost to the company’s server hosting capacity. Plans are also in place to transform part of Turing House into an internal and external training facility.
Melbourne is on course to break the £3m turnover barrier in 2011 and has its sights set on reaching a turnover of £10m by 2014.
