Agency opens doors of new £250,000 home

A digital agency in Shropshire has cut the ribbon on its new home after a major investment.

Creative design and marketing agency Source has spent around £250,000 buying and converting a run-down building near Frankwell transforming it into a new home that will allow the business to expand.

The refit has included new cladding on the front of the building and a new interior. Shrewsbury’s Mayor, Councillor Beverley Baker, cut the ribbon on the newly refurbished premises at a ceremony attended by 60 local business people. On the corner of Nettles Lane, near Theatre Severn in Shrewsbury’s town centre, the new office was previously used by a gaming company as a storage facility which was accessed by a roller door and had no official frontage.

Glenn Millar, Source’s business development manager, said there had been calls from residents for the building to be knocked down. He said; “It effectively looked like a redundant building and lots of people nearby were hoping it would be knocked down. It was an eyesore.

“Sally Tringham, the managing director, had seen it over the years and when it became available we snapped it up.

“Source is going through a stage of business development and we hope to expand the client market. To do that we have specialist in-house people. We are expanding our services to clients and to do that we have to expand the size of our working operation and staff.”

The investment was met with funding from Shropshire Council’s Business Enterprise Fund, and has seen the front of the building refitted.

The 23-year-old company, which employs 10 people, has already taken on one new member of staff from the move.

“We specialise in different areas, and this allows us to expand into areas that we don’t necessarily already concentrate on,” Mr Millar added.

Among the guests was the mayor, as well as Shrewsbury MP Daniel Kawczynski. Mrs Baker said ‘What a transformation. It is fantastic to see this sort of creativity and investment in Shrewbury.’ Mr Kawczynski praised the building saying that it was an ‘incredible transformation of what was a visually awful building to fantastic and inviting new space. The frontage is particularly enhanced by the greenery,’ he added, ‘which is a brilliant finishing touch. It’s really encouraging to see such investment in Shrewsbury.’