Regional recruitment agency Pure Resourcing Solutions has a new landmark Ipswich office, in the transformed former Co-operative Bank building in Princes Street.
The agency, which has other offices in Cambridge, Chelmsford and Norwich, has had the former Co-operative Bank transformed and fitted out for its new use.
The former counters have gone, and the massive safe and internal walls have been removed in the refurbishment to create a light and bright modern office.
The main room is double height with enormous windows at each end, and with space to grow.
Paul Sheldrake, senior manager at Pure’s Ipswich office said: “It’s been extremely exciting to see the new office take shape over the last few months. We may have only moved over the road, but it is still a big step for us. As we’ve continued to go from strength to strength we had outgrown our old offices on Queen Street, where we had been for over a decade.
“We now have more space to continue to grow and we remain at the heart of Ipswich’s regeneration area. This move also puts us at the centre of the planned Ipswich business corridor which has been marked out as part of the town’s transformation plans.”
The main hall is impressive.
“It was three different rooms, now we have one large, light room and with underfloor lighting and electric windows. We considered putting a mezannine floor in, but decided against it.
The frontage remains similar to before, with the old windows replicated, he said.
Paul was a founder member of the Ipswich branch, 11 years-ago.
“In Ipswich, we have helped more than 4,500 to find work.
“We got the Investors in People gold award last January.”
There are company principles, written large, on the walls. There is room to grow as there are 32 desks in the open plan area, of which 21 are currently occupied.
PRS marketing manager Clare Fuller said; “We have just under 90 people working in the business now. We started in Cambridge in 2002 and in Queens Street, Ipswich 11 years ago.
Where the safe used to be, the space has been used to create space for a disabled toilet.
There are also smaller meeting rooms, a board room, break-out areas and staff facilities, kitchens and a shower. There is a basement for storage and a small courtyard which can be fitted with seating for summer.-
Already one member of staff has cycled in from Nayland, he said.
There are bike racks outside the building as part of the Princes Street highways refurbishment.
Pure Resourcing Solutions is heavily involved in community, and supportiing local charities was part of their aims, added Clare.
Since 2002 PRS had raised more the £123,000 for a wide variety of local charities.
In Ipswich, most recently, helping Lighthouse (the women’s refuge and family charity).
“We wanted to be different from other recruitment companies and be really people focussed and support the local communities,” she explained.
“All our 21 employees based in Ipswich can now enjoy much more space and, as with all our offices in the region, it has been vibrantly decorated to create an engaging workspace which clearly communicates Pure’s culture and values.”
Ipswich was predicted to be among the top five UK places for economic growth this year and Pure is proud to remain at the heart of the town and to be supporting the organisations within it. As is proudly displayed on one of the new office walls; the Pure purpose is to ‘contribute to the economic growth of our region and to make a difference to people’s lives’.
This move puts Pure in the strongest position to help achieve this, as business growth means more employers will be looking to attract and retain high calibre employees and more people will be looking to find their next exciting step on the career ladder.
Paul added: “We all love our new office and we hope that our candidates and clients will too. We’re looking forward to welcoming lots of people over the next few weeks and to showing them around.”
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