Welcome To Bredbury – Our New Home
Towards the end of 2019, Datesand officially got the keys to the new freehold HQ, based in Bredbury, Stockport. This was the company’s 5th move in 40 years of business and of course, the biggest one yet.
We have been looking at a new home for nearly 5 years. In 2016, we applied for planning permission to extend our existing warehouse space onto the carpark at Edwin Road, but this was not granted. We discovered that the council and the owners of Manchester City Football Club (our next-door neighbours!) had plans for East Manchester and so in 2017 we sold our space to the council and stayed there for 2 years rent-free while we took up our mission to find the perfect new place.
Datesand first started in the Wood family home with production taking place in the single garage.
Before this move, Datesand comprised of 3 sites in Manchester and satellite sites in both Oxford and Cambridge. The Datesand HQ on Edwin Road was a low roofed 14,000 square feet space, and our other two sites not far from HQ added around an extra 18,000 square feet.
Our new home has had the capacity to consolidate our three sites into one with over 40,000 square feet in total, but more importantly a height of 12 metres in the warehouse space, meaning we can now store at a 5-pallet height, doubling our capacity from the previous facilities. On top of this, our site on the Bredbury Park Industrial Estate has 2 acres of yard space and land – essential for our future plans to extend and modify as we need.
All in all, this essential move has been a £2.5 million investment – this included a much-needed refurbishment to make the space our own.
Despite needing a new space due to the plans of the Greater Manchester Council, it was our intention to develop a new working environment that improved standards for customers and staff alike. Bringing all our Manchester sites into one space means that we have been able to introduce labour savings, time savings and reduction of movement. This introduces not only ecological benefits but also means that we run more lean operations and manufacturing services overall, improving our environmental impact and offering more commercial advantages.
Access has been a key factor for us, and our site in Bredbury is well linked to the Manchester Motorway Network. We have also kept our Oxford and Cambridge sites to ensure that we have efficient distribution across the country with local contingency stocks positioned close to key customers.
As well as being able to offer our customers the best service, staff wellbeing and welfare is an absolute priority at Datesand, and it is our ongoing mission to make this the best possible place to work. It was also our aim to keep all of our existing staff and provide them with an exceptional working environment.
To ensure this, we have provided a light, spacious and positive working environment within the offices which are safe, secure and contained. We have installed a fully functioning kitchen so all staff can enjoy whatever they wish at work and provided a large breakout space with ample seating, two TVs, a games console and a multi-functional pool/table tennis/air hockey table!
As we enter our 40th year of business, we are so proud to stand where we are today. This is the latest chapter of the ongoing Datesand story, and we’re delighted and grateful to have you all with us on this exciting journey.
Thank you and best wishes,
From the whole Datesand team!
