Game on for entrepreneur’s office move

A CUSTOMISED gaming controller business has moved into Crown House.

The Leeds business centre is located on Armley Road. It was launched by Malik House Business Centres group last year.

Malik invested £1m in the refurbishment of the site.

Custom Controllers was launched by business student Ben Lawton in 2012. It makes designs around 350 types of controllers, and turns over £500,00 a year.

Its new headquarters will be home to assembly, sales and marketing operations, and Custom Controllers have employed four more staff as a result of their expansion.

Crown House was once the home of Leeds Forge Company where foundry magnate Samson Fox produced iron for locomotive and marine engine parts and later developed the corrugated boiler flue for which he became famous.

Mr Lawton said: “We were expanding rapidly and needed more space. A friend recommended the new Crown House Business Centre which is a great location quite close to the city centre but without the hassle. All our products are new and up-and-coming and now, so is our premises.

“The beauty of getting in here early is that we are free to grow. The suite we’d taken looked really big but once we started getting in the extra stock and staff for Christmas, we were tripping over each other and realised we’d need extra space.

“Because we were then given a double-sized suite which was literally next door, we were able to move everything over in the middle of the night without eating into our business hours – and we still have room for future expansion”.

Sheraz Malik, director of Malik House Business Centres said: “We are always keen to support up-and-coming young entrepreneurs, who will be leading lights in business well into the future, so we were very proud to welcome Ben and his team.

“What he has achieved in such a short time is extremely impressive and it gives us a great deal of satisfaction that our facilities will help this young company to grow and thrive even further.”