Bedford

Success Stories

Bedford has attracted globally renowned companies for many years and is today becoming more appealing to international companies and inward investors.

Below are just some of the examples of the more recent company relocations that serve to highlight the increasing attractiveness of the location, labour force and lifestyle the area offers.

United Paper Products Relocate

United Paper Products have recently moved from their Hitchin plant to Bedford after the purchase of a 70, 000 sq ft office and manufacturing building at Arkwright Road, Bedford. The relocation to the town will help the company reach a wider base of clients and is great news for Bedford, as the company is one of the largest manufacturers of paper products in the UK and will create up to 85 new jobs in the area.

Blue Chip continue to expand in Bedford

Blue Chip, the largest independent maintainer of IBM Mid-Range systems within the UK has continued to expand its Bedford presence with the acquisition of 13,000 sq ft premises on Caxton Road. This new property adds to their two existing premises in Bedford, including their UK Head Office. Richard Last from Brown & Lee Chartered Surveyors who worked on the deal commented “We are seeing good demand for industrial property in Bedford, particularly for freehold and detached units, which will hopefully lead to new development coming through in the area”

Continental Clothing Move in

Clothing wholesaler Continental Clothing has recently relocated from London and opened a 40,000 sq ft site in the increasingly popular Cambridge Road Industrial Estate, Bedford. When looking at new sites, it became apparent that Bedford would benefit them the most due to its well connected location. Their move to Bedford will create 10 new jobs initially.

Preferred Developer identified for Exciting Riverside Development

Mayor Dave Hodgson has announced the appointment of Coplan, Denne and PRP as Bedford Borough Council’s preferred development partners for the Riverside North Redevelopment Project.

The Riverside North Project will be a mixed use retail, leisure and residential project encompassing the area currently occupied by the Town Hall Office Block, the neighbouring Riverside House Building and Horne Lane Car Park. The area has been identified as a key development site for the redevelopment and revitalisation of Bedford Town Centre.

The project aims to help build a stronger local economy, delivering higher levels of sustainable growth and employment for existing and future residents.

The First Letting at St Martins Business Centre

Paradigm Audio Visual Limited have recently taken a lease of Unit 9 St Martin Business Centre, a 10,351 sqft industrial unit. The letting follows the recent purchase of the estate by Centurion Industrial Asset Management (CIAM) in conjunction with Scottish Widows Investment Partnership, and an extensive refurbishment of the two vacant units.

St Martins Business Centre is located on Cambridge Road which has excellent access to the A421, the recently upgraded dual carriage way which links Bedford to the A1 and M1. Other occupiers on the estate include Fuji Film and the RSPB.

New Investment

Euro Car Parts, who have a national network of sites, have recently moved into a 6,000 square foot premises in the heart of Bedford. Their new location will help them service the local area and with it create 12 new jobs in Bedford.

Accountancy firm Streets has continued its expansion strategy by opening a new office in Wyboston.

Following on from the opening of the Riverside Grill restaurant at the prestigious Castle Quay development, a second restaurant, named ‘Spaghetti John’s is due to open in July. The area, which is a contemporary development in the heart of Bedford’s new cultural quarter sits in an exciting riverside leisure destination.

Redevelopment Scheme Progresses

A scheme to redevelop the former Krupp Camford Works site in South Bedford, an area of significant deprivation, has now moved to application stage. The masterplan for this extensive mixed-use scheme includes a number of different uses, of which the key elements are a Morrisons foodstore, together with a DIY/garden centre, hotel, business starter units and 141 homes.

Bedford Interchange Park

HPG Developments, the development arm of the Howard Group in Cambridge, has recently acquired the 8.3 acre site at Interchange Park near Bedford. Planning consent has been granted for 110,000 sq ft of employment buildings and a car showroom with the proposed scheme looking to bring new job opportunities as well as much needed new commercial space to the area.

Foreign Direct Investment to Bedford

Vision Modular Systems (VMS), an Irish based construction company, have relocated to Bedford. Taking occupancy of the largest available vacant industrial premises in the area, the company plan to create up to 250 jobs. VMS design and manufacture modules for a range of clients across the construction industry; the modules are manufactured within a controlled assembly line environment by skilled operatives and then hauled to site where the frame has been erected. VMS are currently servicing a contract in central London and chose Bedford over other location options due to its excellent infrastructure links, competitive prices and skilled workforce.

Movianto expand presence in Bedford

Movianto UK, a leading logistics and distribution service provider managing in excess of 1 million items each day, has significantly expanded its presence in Bedford by taking up a further 130,000 sq ft of premises. This expansion, capitalising on Bedford’s first-rate work force pool and excellent connectivity will bring with it a substantial job increase to the Borough.

New Development brings jobs

More than 110,000 sq ft of commercial space, including a car showroom, is to be built on land at Interchange Park in Bedford.

HPG Developments, the development arm of property company HPG which was founded in Bedford has acquired the 8.3 acre site and has received planning consent for the development from Bedford Borough Council.

The new development is expected to bring a large number of new jobs to the area.

Marston Vale Innovation Park Masterplan Complete

20 acres of council owned land, adjacent to the dualled A421 just south of Bedford have taken a step closer to becoming a prestigious gateway business park with the completion of the site masterplan. The plan details Marston Vale
Innovation Park as a premier commercial location providing a high-quality, innovation-focused business community.

Saab relocates to Cranfield hub

Luton-based Saab GB has relocated to brand new head offices at the Cranfield Technology Park adjoining Cranfield University.

Saab says that the location fits perfectly with its aerospace heritage as Cranfield University is a leading postgraduate centre for technology, engineering and aerospace. The relocation follows on from the completion of the sale of Saab GB to Spyker Cars which took place in May.

Jonathan Nash, managing director of Saab GB, said: “We are very excited – moving into our new head offices is an important milestone in the separation process and for the future of an independent Saab GB.

Leengate moves to Bedford

Leengate Metals will shortly be moving into a 12,000 square foot site in the heart of Bedford. The premises will help them service the 3 counties and surrounding southern areas and with it create 10 new jobs in Bedford. When deciding on where to locate it became apparent almost immediately that Bedford would benefit them the most. A spokesmen for Leengate stated 'we were attracted to Bedford due to the positive approach to sourcing local suppliers, infrastructure of the new bypass, good diversity of industries and the feel of an up and coming area'

New retailer opens its doors in Bedford

GO Outdoors, the U.K.’s fastest growing chain of outdoor superstores has recently opened its latest store in Bedford. The 41,000 Square foot retail outlet, also includes a cafe, a five metre climbing wall, a gait analysis machine and a large tent display area. The new store opening has created over 50 jobs and has considerably improved the area which formerly housed MFI.

Major Food Manufacturer Invests in Bedford

Lantmannen Unibake, a €700m turnover company with 3,800 employees in 18 countries, is developing a new 300 employee+ manufacturing facility in Bedford.

Taking just 4 months from the first phone conversation with Bedford Borough Council about locating in the town to a start on site, Lantmannen Unibake felt that confidence, from the beginning, about being able to come to Bedford was key to their selection of the G.Park site on the southern edge of Bedford.
They are hoping to have the new facility up and running in January 2011.

Science Park attracts biotech and unveils expansion plan

Biotech company, Biocontrol Ltd, which is working to develop the biological answer to antibiotic resistance, has moved in at Colworth Science Park, Bedford, relocating its research facility from Nottingham.

The company has taken suite 130 in Colworth House Annexe, comprising 2,660 sq ft of labs and office space, in order to cater for its expanding business following successful clinical trials of its lead product BioPhage-PA.

Joint developers of Colworth Science Park, Goodman and Unilever, refurbished parts of the building after it was vacated by Unilever, as the property is ideal to meet demand for smaller flexible business space from start-up companies.

More major development has also been confirmed, as Dr Sally Ann Forsyth, director of Colworth Science Park, explained: “At Colworth we’re fostering growth, but of the business incubation kind!

“We initially developed the annexe to capitalise on demand from the SME/start-up sectors. Despite the economic downturn, we are continuing to see resilient levels of demand for smaller business and lab space at Colworth.

Creative Hub Takes Root Just North of Bedford

Millennium Studios, a subsidiary of Elstree Light and Power, is a significant creative sector company which is looking to use its recently acquired ‘enclave’ of buildings at Thurleigh Airfield Business Park as a creative hub providing, on- and off-site, a wide range of facilities and support, filming, recording, event and related activities. An early project looking to go through the planning process is additional recording studio capacity.

Blue Chip cuts ribbons on UK 'Eco' data centre

Blue Chip, the information technology services specialists, announces the opening of their latest UK premier Eco Datacentre. The development of this five-acre site offers the most up-to-date eco-friendly technology in the UK.

The £5 million datacentre, built in Bedford, UK becomes home to many of Blue Chip’s existing customers, and by expanding their portfolio of services is set to offer new clients the latest technology and services. Housing up to 600 racks and supporting the highest levels of resilience and security, the design supports the changing needs of today’s industry, such as hosting, service management, consolidation, cloud computing and virtualization, enabling UK clients to operate their IT at optimum value for money.

"At more than 26,000 sq ft, our new datacentre significantly expands our offerings and abilities in meeting the demand from our customers for our hosted and managed services," Brian Meredith, Managing Director for Blue Chip. “This is the third and largest datacentre we have built and places us in an excellent position to provide and respond to the growing needs of our customers.”

Cranfield to house million pound facility for improving aircraft efficiency

Cranfield is the first UK University to house a unique £1m industrial scale facility that seeks to improve the efficiency of aircraft assembly.

The site, on the outskirts of Bedford will enable researchers to develop and test new ways of assembling an aircraft wing. Other facilities within the laboratory support the assembly of other airframe and large engine components by combining advanced robotics and optimised human capabilities.

New Premises for Showtrax International

Showtrax International are delighted to announce the move to new premises. The company who are the Worlds number one supplier of automotive display and pit lane equipment to the motor racing industry have located ot a new building in Bedford. The site comprises of workshops and storage, a 1800 sq feet fully equipped graphics department and offices with showroom.

Sainsbury’s Distribution Comes to Bedford

Legal & General Property is pleased to announce that it has secured Sainsbury's as a tenant at Bedford Connect, its 461,718 sq ft (42,893 sq m) warehouse in Marsh Leys Distribution Park, Bedford.

Sainsbury's has taken the unit on a 20-year lease at £5.50 per sq ft. Other tenants at the park, which fronts the A421 on the western side of Bedford, include Asda and Argos. The building was previously occupied by Woolworths and represented the only major distribution warehouse of its size currently available in the South East of England. It is now used by Sainsbury's to support its growing store network across the region.

Craig Westmacott, Fund Manager of the Linked Life Property Fund at Legal & General Property, comments:
"After intense competition from other leading occupiers, this deal clearly reflects the high quality, size and connectability of this unit in providing a strategically positioned South East distribution hub, as well as renewed occupier confidence in this market.

Probe Scientific moves to i-lab

Probe Scientific is developing innovative products to solve clinical problems and improve healthcare. The company has a substantial product pipeline based on its proprietary technologies and is seeking to commercialise this range to simultaneously benefit clinicians and the community in general.

As they rolled out the next stage of the business plan they needed a location and set-up that provided them with good communications, office and lab space and flexibility to grow, at a competitive price in a one-stop package. This plus the availability of well-specified meeting and presentation facilities meant Bedford i-lab allowed them to provide a professional environment for suppliers, funders, partners and potential customers as well as the team, as they evolve”.

New Microelectronic Facility for Axis

Axis Electronics announces the opening of a new microelectronic facility in Bedford. From March 2010 the company will be offering microelectronic assembly services including manual/automatic die bonding and manual/automatic wire/tape bonding.
The facility will be located in Bedford and will consist of a class 10,000 cleanroom with temperature and humidity controls.

Warner Brothers to use Cardington Hangars

Warner Bros looked at a number of different locations around the London area for Batman 5 but decided to locate to Bedford. The brief was to find an enormous building, that also had a great deal of height, to construct a major film set and for this reason they opted to use the Hangars at Cardington.

One of the main reasons for choosing the location was the sheer size of the building, which meant that larger sets than ever before could be built inside, thus giving the Company a greater latitude on building - i.e., exterior sets built inside, which meant they could create and control their own weather conditions. The 1st stage was to demolish all of the buildings not required for the set and the 2nd stage was to install workshops.

There were about 50 craftsmen working at this stage, increasing to 150 during the main set building phase. In addition, they also hired a large number of local extras to use during the filming stage.

Regional enterprise hub at Colworth Science Park

Colworth Science Park in Bedfordshire, which is being developed by Unilever and global property group Goodman, is set to become a regional enterprise hub by bringing together academia, SMEs and other life science companies to drive technology transfer and support economic growth in the region.

The 21,000 sq ft amenities centre will allow Cranfield University and the University of Cambridge’s Institute for Manufacturing (IfM) to establish a presence at Colworth Science Park, alongside one of Unilever’s global research facilities and 16 SME companies, which undertake cutting-edge research, prototyping and product development. In addition to providing accommodation for the business schools, the amenities centre will incorporate a café and restaurant, and state-of-the-art meeting and conference facilities capable of hosting up to 200 people.

The 35,000 sq ft Innovation Centre, will offer flexible laboratory and office suites designed to accommodate the IFR Extra Ltd, growing businesses and academics in a collaborative environment. Goodman and Unilever, who formed a 50:50 joint venture to develop the 1,200 acre site, hope the Innovation Centre will help address a shortage of scientific lab space in the area with an ‘easy in/ easy out’ leasing policy, in addition to supporting the growth of knowledge firms in the food, health and wellness sector.

Drug manufacturer chooses Bedford

Bedford has become the UK hub for one of the world's largest manufacturers of drugs that combat bacterial infections, cardiovascular disease and tuberculosis, following a new contract win by Bedford-based healthcare logistics firm, Movianto UK.
Lupin Pharmaceuticals has selected Movianto to provide warehousing and distribution services for its UK market entry, which will be run from Movianto's Bedford operations centre and warehouse facility.

From this central location, in dividual product lines will be picked and transported overnight via Movianto's 30,000m2 capacity UK network of eight strategically located MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency) approved depots for next day delivery to wholesalers and pharmaceutical chains.

Known until September 2007 as Healthcare Logistics, Movianto UK is a subsidiary of the Movianto Group, the logistics and distribution business unit of Celesio AG, and employs a team of over 800 throughout the UK.

Argos open second Bedford distribution centre

Argos Direct has opened their second major distribution centre in Bedford which will service the south of England. This 657,000 square foot facility now employs over 600 staff. One of the major considerations in Argos's choice was Bedford's central location and the fact that Bedford is 'strategically placed on the A421, close the M1 and A1.' Another crucial factor was the availability of land for large-scale warehouse development, not to mention the labour pool, necessary for such an expansion.

Twelve Horses UK moves to Bedford

Twelve Horses are an 'Online Marketing Agency', who specialise in providing a fully managed online marketing service, or supplying the tools and support for companies to manage their online marketing in-house and in some situations a mixture of both. Twelve Horses UK, located in Bedford since November 2003, operate with 5 members of staff and are represented with other offices in Reno Nevada, Salt Lake City, New York, Johannesburg and Dublin.

They chose to operate from Bedford for a number of reasons. The key benefactors were its central location, as the office supports the entire country, it was important that the location was close to London, but also easy access to the major motorways M1 and A1M was important. Commercially, Bedford was also a viable option. Although London, Milton Keynes and Birmingham are all within an hour and a half, Bedford is very reasonable with regards to cost of premises, also staff remuneration doesn't have the heavy London weighting costs. Twelve Horses were also impressed with the variety of offices available, settling for a modern business centre with excellent facilities on site.

Highways Agency

The Eastern region office of the Highways Agency has been in Bedford for a number of years, but more recently committed to moving from their original offices to a large modern office development at Woodlands, Bedford.With 320 staff in the area, this shows the Agency's commitment to the area, maintaining it's current skills base. With such a large organisation as the Highways Agency, it was important that the area could provide large, high quality office developments such as Woodlands in order to retain the Highways Agency.

In a government report comparing various locations potential for relocating Government departments away from Whitehall, Bedford scored highly for Policy Making, and knowledge and research related functions. This places Bedford in a strong position to benefit from future Government relocations and sends a message of confidence to private investors.

If you are a business that has recently moved to Bedford, we would love to hear from you!
Please contact 01234 276261 or email Simon.dunning@bedford.gov.uk