Adapting your workspace to support business expansion
As your SME grows and evolves, you may need to adapt your workspace to your changing business requirements. In the case of MD Glass Partitions, a customer of our business centre in Harlow for 5 years, this meant creating a new warehouse space alongside their office space. We spoke with operations manager, Richard Lawrence, to understand how tailoring their workspace has driven the business’ expansion.
Providing an expanding business with further workspace
Since its conception over 20 years ago, MD Glass Partitions has been evolving. The company recently realised that they needed to store more stock to serve growing demand. And so, they identified a need for a second unit. As Richard explained: “We’ve got a fleet of eight vans and fitters that come in, pick up what they need for the next day or the next couple of days and then go back out again. But we’ve grown so much over the last few years that we needed a second spot to store the amount of glass and track work that we needed for the fitting. Now we can’t work out how we ever coped without the second unit.”
Differentiating from the competition
Outcompeting other players in the industry has been key to MD Glass Partitions’ success and has allowed them to continue expanding. Richard shared what makes them different: “Unlike our competitors, all of our labour is directly employed by us. We don’t subcontract our work out. Lots of people in our industry subcontract their stuff to other people and don’t actually do the work themselves. So, with us you get a very personal service. You get a very quick service. You know exactly what you’re going to get. There are no ups and downs in the quality of the service that we can provide. We’re very active and very responsive. We pride ourselves on the speed of response, of getting quotes out, getting to site, getting jobs completed and over the line with a high level of satisfaction.”
A professional workspace for an industrial business
When they were looking for a workspace, MD Glass Partitions knew they needed units which could be both industrial and professional. And they knew they needed a local base, too.
Richard explained that the presentability of Greenway Business Centre in Harlow was what drew them to it: “It suits all the industrial purposes, but also doesn’t look like an industrial estate; it looks nice. So there’s no problem bringing clients here – we’ve got a little meeting room in our offices, and there’s no worry about bringing people over to see it. We also chose it based on recommendations from people we knew who were on the site. It’s very convenient for us as we live quite close by, so it’s just a really good space to work at, especially with all the parking available.”
A supportive team to enhance your workspace
If your business is growing, or needs to adapt its site, our team are always on hand to help, as they were when MD Glass Partitions needed to install a mezzanine level to incorporate storage space into their offices.
Richard explained how our team at Greenway Business Centre in Harlow made the process as smooth as possible: “When we installed a mezzanine floor into our main unit, which is where our offices are now, the team were very helpful and supportive in that process, going through all of the hoops that need to be jumped through and getting that to work. And just generally, they are very responsive. We get on very well with the centre manager and the deputy, and if we have any issues – things like a light bulb going out – they’re very reactive and quick to get on top of that and sort things out for those little things that just happen.”
