Member Article

Barnsley Digital Media Hub creates 50 jobs and reports record turnover growth

Barnsley’s creative and digital sector is thriving with occupancy at the town’s flagship Digital Media Centre at its highest ever level.

The town centre building has had its most successful year since opening in 2008 helping 18 new companies to flourish and occupancy now stands at 81%.

In the past year, a total of 50 jobs have been created at the centre which is run by Oxford Innovation on behalf of Barnsley Council.

The innovative companies based in the centre have also recorded some of their best trading periods.

A digital marketing agency based in the fully serviced building increased turnover from £80,000 to £395,000 in a year whilst another, a specialist IT company, rocketed from £220,000 to £600,000.

Amanda Lennon, regional director at Oxford Innovation, said: “This has been a fantastic year for the DMC and the 63 businesses it supports.

“There has been a very distinct buzz in the centre in recent months and lot of collaboration between the tenant companies. This is stimulating business and there has been a lot of movement within the building as companies have needed to upsize.”

In the past year six businesses expanded into larger space in the building with tenant companies citing high speed broadband, location and opportunities for continuing professional development as the most important factors.

More than half of the centre’s clients accessed mentoring or networking services and six companies have engaged apprentices.

The centre’s year on year revenue increased by almost 18% as the DMC continued to build strong partnerships with local colleges, Universities and creative, design industry specialists.

Kerry Brown of software solutions company DataDream said: “Moving into the DMC has been a very shrewd move. Since moving in Jan 2013 our business has grown by 500% and we’ve doubled the number of staff we employ. We’re now in a very strong position to move forward and capitalise as the economy continues to grow.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Clare Burnett .