Hat-trick of Companies Expand within Round Foundry Media Centre

A trio of companies based at the Round Foundry Media Centre in Leeds have expanded into larger office space following a period of sustained growth, giving further testament to the area’s established reputation as a place where creative start-up companies can thrive and grow within the digital hub of the city.

Digital Minds, a specialist digital recruitment agency which formed in 2009, has doubled its office space in just two years and recently taken over a 500 sq ft office, the company’s second expansion in the Centre since relocating from West One, Wellington Street in 2010. The business, which also has a satellite office in London to service the 60 per cent of its clients which are based in the Capital, now plans to grow its four-strong team to seven by the end of 2013.

Creative agency Publish Interactive, which provides e-publishing software solutions for market research publishers, has taken on five new staff this year and knocked through into a third office space in the Media Centre to accommodate its rapid growth. The business, which moved its then small team of three into the Media Centre in 2009, has quadrupled its staff in just three years, winning a host of industry accolades as well as a raft of international clients and increased its revenue by 400 per cent.

Simple Usability moved to the Media Centre in 2007 and has doubled its office space in just five years, now occupying a 1,714 sq ft office and grown its staff from two to fourteen in the same period following a number of new business wins. The company, a behavioural research consultancy, doubled its staff in the last twelve months alone and invested £100,000 into its facilities earlier this year which added a new office, a new observation room and a second laboratory, trebling the company’s capacity for new projects. Current clients include ASDA, Jet2.com and clothing brand, Republic.

Comments Tim Dodkin, Development Manager with the Leeds City Region and North Yorkshire team at the Homes and Communities Agency, lease-holders of the Round Foundry Media Centre: “The Media Centre has fulfilled our ambition to become a nucleus for new and burgeoning creative companies, many of which are seeing tangible results in terms of physical expansion into new office space and creation of jobs. These are just three examples of the many start-up companies which are on a growth trajectory in the Centre and whose expansion we can facilitate seamlessly, allowing them to continue to focus on driving their business forward.”

The Media Centre is managed by Leeds based Creative Space Management, which also manages another of the HCA’s key assets in the area, the historic Tower Works development which re-opened in July this year. Between them, the two developments are home to more than 40 companies which employ approximately 220 people within Holbeck Urban Village, each of which plays a key role in attracting a new generation of innovative industries to the former industrial centre of the city.

The Urban Village, which also includes Igloo’s Round Foundry development, features a range of buildings and facilities which offer flexible spaces designed to accommodate the needs of rapid-growth SMEs. Fledgling companies which outgrow the Media Centre can go on to expand into larger offices within the estate, remaining an important cog in the creative engine of this thriving digital community.

what our clients say

We love being based in the media centre as it is an aspirational building within the new media scene of Leeds. We can also take our clients to some top quality bars and restaurants that are right on our doorstep. At the end of the day, we run a successful business, and to do this it helps if we are around other successful businesses.

Guy Redwood, Director, Simple Usablity.

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