Expanding digital company moves into 2,000 sq ft city centre offices

Public sector digital specialist dxw digital is settling into more than 2,000 sq ft of offices in central Leeds after expanding from its base in London.

The company, which employs about 70 people in total and recorded a £5m turnover last year, now has a home in Calls Landing.

The business had said a northern office would make it easier for it to work with a wider range of public sector organisations, as well as with local authorities in the North and Midlands. Its new office is led by the former head of the Home Office’s Digital Hub in Sheffield, Saul Cozens.

dxw digital Managing Director, David Mann, said he and his colleagues were impressed with the talent pool on offer in Leeds.

He added: “Over the last few years we’d had the ambition to open a second office as we wanted to have a national reach.

“A lot of our work has been based in London and the South East and while that has been rewarding there’s a whole country out there.

“We’d been looking at different options and plumped for Leeds, where we’ve fairly recently found a permanent home, on the second floor of the Calls Landing building.

“Funnily enough it was actually the first building we’d looked at in Leeds and we were very keen on the central location.

“We have eight people permanently based there at the moment, but we’re looking to recruit more and hope to grow our Leeds team to 20 or so over the next couple of years.

“We have a blend of skills in Leeds, including researchers, software engineers and delivery specialists, but we are looking to take on more developers. The idea is that the Leeds team can work independently of London.

“It is always hard to find developers with the skills capability we need, as we’re a highly specialist organisation in terms of software development. The skills bar is quite high and we’re competing with a lot of other people to find the right talent.

“But we have a good name in our industry and the way we work is appealing to developers, so we generally do OK with recruitment.”

Mann began his career in digital technology in 1995 and has previously worked for the Government’s digital service. He was part of the team that built the gov.uk public sector information website.

He said dxw digital has important clients in Leeds, including NHS England. The firm’s wider client base also features central government, housing associations and local authorities.

The business has been operating for the last 11 years and Mann has been with the company for four and a half years.

He said: “Our headcount has grown from 12 when I joined and it’s 68 now so we’ve experienced reasonably rapid growth.

“We’re looking forward to doing more in Leeds. We made a commitment to the city for sound business reasons and we’re really excited to see what the next couple of years will bring.”