Harrogate’s Windsor House home to booming businesses
Pictured from left are Laura Powling, Katherine Beckett, Vincent Dunlop, Liz Wild, Angela Swift, Graham Wild and property manager at Windsor House, Karen Winspear
Harrogate’s Windsor House – which has invested significantly in the former luxury hotel’s public areas – is staking its claim as the town’s single biggest business hub.
Owned by Boultbee Brooks, the former Grand Hotel boasts 75,000 sq ft of flexible workspace and is home to more than 115 businesses, many of which have thrived over the last three Brexit and Covid years.
Karen Winspear, Building Manager for Windsor House, said: “There are many success stories of businesses located here, who continue to grow despite the challenges faced throughout the last three years.
“Even during the three national Covid lockdowns, our occupancy stood firm, and I’m delighted to say despite the doom and gloom, many prospered.
“The sectors our tenants work in is incredibly varied, from care home developers and accountants to recruitment consultancies and solicitors.
“These include Angela Swift Developments, Bluewave Select, Wild & Co Chartered Accountants, The Notary Solution and Evolve Psychology Services. These businesses have not only survived the challenges of the last three years, they have thrived.
“They, and all our tenants, are contributing to Harrogate’s economy, and I’m proud that Windsor House is playing its part in this.”
Angela Swift from Angela Swift Developments, which specialises in the development of care homes, building residential homes for the elderly and moved to Windsor House in 2016, said: “During the pandemic we managed to retain all our staff. We worked hard throughout this time, managing virtual approvals with councils, and continuing with our build programme.
“We found more opportunities because of Covid. The pandemic demonstrated the level of need that exists for our builds and what we do in the care sector – which is creating five-star, state of the art care homes, as well as our expertise in creating specialist areas to protect residents and staff.”
Vincent Dunlop, co-founder and director of specialist IT recruitment business bluewaveSELECT, said: “The move to Windsor House has helped open up more opportunities, describing the offices as a ‘growth enabler’.
“Turnover has increased to from £500k in year one to £18m today, and the team has grown to 22. We have recently added offices in New York and Munich. Bluewave plans to add 16 more people to its team by 2024 and expand to more overseas locations.
“We employ local people in Harrogate; even if they have no experience, we will train and invest in them. Our mantra is to ‘trust the process’, which means if you do the right things every day then you can’t fail.”
Launched in 2009, Wild & Co Chartered Accountants has gone from strength to strength, thanks to the uniquely proactive support it offers to businesses of all sizes. Since Covid, the size of the team has doubled, as has the office space the firm occupies in Windsor House.
Founder Liz Wild, who runs the business with her husband Graham, said: “Graham and I live and work in Harrogate, and we feel passionate about growing and investing locally.
“We have worked hard to build our business in Harrogate, with Windsor House as our base for the past five years, and we are delighted that our positive approach has seen us double our turnover since the start of lockdown.”
Ten years ago, Katherine Beckett incorporated The Notary Solution Limited, a specialised law firm that deals with legal documents to be used abroad.
Katherine Beckett said: “During the pandemic we had to keep working because businesses required notaries. Company directors could not travel so they had to sign documents in the UK and have them notarised and attested.
“To find a notary you usually have to look locally. However, we have always innovated and used technology to allow us to operate our services in multiple locations.
“This has given our business the edge over other providers and enabled our growth. We have a team of notaries that operate throughout the UK that we manage from our head office at Windsor House.”
Evolve Psycholgy Services was founded in 2014 by Consultant Clinical Psychologist, Dr Laura Powling, and offers evidence-based psychological and neurodevelopmental services.
“Covid hugely impacted upon NHS waiting lists, and so we have been proud to work alongside the NHS to address the waiting times as an approved NHS provider - offering high quality neurodevelopmental (autism and ADHD) assessments to clients and families.
“Over the pandemic we have also seen an increase in referrals for mental health and neurodevelopmental conditions.”
For more information on the collaborative working space, visit here.
