Action Mailing Services

American mailing company Action Mailing Services opened its first UK office in Fengate, Peterborough, in July 2004 to take advantage of the city’s central location and its excellent transport links.

Established in 1967, Action Mailing provides mailing solutions for companies in a variety of sectors including financial, manufacturing, insurance and advertising/marketing. The company uses automated equipment to handle both small and large mailings and uses a number of technologies, such as variable data laser imaging, to meet clients’ requirements.

Base Commercial Mortgages

Base Commercial Mortgages is a newly launched commercial mortgage lender which has recently opened its doors for business on the business park at Lynch Wood. The company focuses on servicing selected mortgage brokers and intermediaries. Its new processing centre is staffed by a dedicated team of underwriters and processors who service a national team of business development and lending managers.

Base uses a fully integrated online system and leading edge information technology to link brokers, valuers and solicitors with underwriters at the Peterborough office from anywhere in the UK. The IT solution was provided by another Peterborough company, Sibson based Advanced Business Solutions. Advanced Group provided all the necessary systems and support to help maintain Base’s business.

BNP Paribas Securities Services

BNP Paribas Securities Services, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the BNP Paribas Group, provides a wide range of securities services and investment operations solutions to issuers, financial intermediaries and institutional investors worldwide. The company employs nearly 5,000 professionals worldwide, with around 1,200 in the UK, 240 of whom are based in Peterborough.

The securities services division of BNP Paribas relocated some of its personnel to Peterborough to take advantage of its excellent location and transport connections to attract new clients.

Charis Grants

Charis Grants Limited, the company that delivers grants on behalf of independent charitable trusts, has relocated its Peterborough office within the city to accommodate an increasing workforce.

Charis Grants delivers charitable trust funds on behalf of grant making trusts such as the British Gas Energy Trust, Anglian Water Trust Fund and the EDF Energy Trust. The charitable trusts make grants available to reduce or clear outstanding utility and other bills for people facing financial hardship. Charis Grants enables companies, individuals and grant making trusts to use their charitable funds effectively and provides key services such as grants management, support and advice.

The company has been established for five years and has recently relocated to new premises at Midgate House, Peterborough, to enable the company to grow. Charis Grants currently employs around 20 staff and is planning to recruit more.

Cirrus IT

Cirrus IT, which provides managed IT services, consultancy, and training for payroll and human resources (HR) software, opened offices in Peterborough in late 2004 to bring its workforce under one roof.

Following continued growth it recently moved into the city centre, employing more staff at its new Grant House offices and also introducing new services. The company’s clients include a number of top 250 companies such as RMC Group, Limit Underwriting, Harvey Nichols and IKEA.

As Peterborough is centrally located and has excellent travel connections, it has proved to be ideal for the company’s needs as its client base is located across the UK from London to Scotland.

Cowen

Insurance broker R A Cowen and Partners Limited opened its first office outside Mansfield at the Equinox Business Park in Lynch Wood, Peterborough.

The company, which has been established in Mansfield for 30 years, chose to open a second office in Peterborough to extend its client base into East Anglia. The location proved ideal due to its excellent transport links and connections to the Eastern region.

The company has purchased a brand new, purpose built office at a business park near the city centre. It plans to employ up to ten staff from the local area and is looking to expand further in the future.

EINSA

Spanish company EINSA designs, manufactures and maintains civil and military airside equipment. The company has secured a Ministry of Defence contract to maintain and repair weapon loaders at RAF bases in the UK and worldwide.

The company opened its first international office outside Spain in Orton Southgate, Peterborough, and the office currently employs seven locally recruited engineers and administration staff.

Peterborough proved to be the ideal location for EINSA as it is close to a number of RAF bases in the East of England and has good transport connections to other bases around the UK. It is also close to Stansted and Luton airports, enabling staff to travel to a number of international locations.

Froglife

National amphibian and reptile conservation charity Froglife relocated to Peterborough to take advantage of the city’s transport connections and to benefit from its status as an Environment City.

Froglife is involved in numerous conservation projects in Peterborough, most significantly the management of the internationally important flagship nature reserve at the city’s southern township, Hampton. The reserve is home to a number of protected species including great crested newts and rare plants.

As well as providing project management, Froglife offers information and advice to professional conservationists, government bodies and members of the public about the conservation and welfare of native amphibians and reptiles.

Froglife also manages an ecological consultancy business providing services to a wide range of companies. Its work includes carrying out amphibian/reptile surveys and translocations.

General and Medical

General and Medical provides individual, family and corporate health insurance. The company recently relocated its headquarters from Northamptonshire to Peterborough because expansion of the company and its workforce meant the company had out-grown its former premises.

Peterborough proved to be the obvious choice to establish a new headquarters due to its excellent transport connections.

Since the move the workforce has grown to around 20 people and recruitment is still continuing to increase the sales team. Long term plans include further expansion within the administration department.

Henderson Insurance Brokers

Henderson Insurance Brokers Ltd (HIBL) opened its first Cambridgeshire office at the Lynch Wood business park in Peterborough in October 2004. The location was chosen to take advantage of the city’s selection of commercial property and the area’s strong and diverse economy.

The range of affordable commercial property available in the city meant that the rapidly expanding company was able to find an ideal location that would allow it to grow further.

HIBL is a leading insurance broker which deals with a variety of businesses. The Peterborough office deals predominantly with commercial insurance for small to medium size businesses.

Home Office

The Home Office chose Peterborough for its new National Offenders Management Services offices. Home Office and Ministry of Justice staff in the city now total around 50 people.

IKEA

Swedish furniture giant IKEA opened a £40 million distribution centre located on a 30-hectare (75-acre) site alongside the Fletton Parkway section of Peterborough's ring road in July 2003. It has 85,000 square metres (915,000 sq ft) of storage space.

The centre, which operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, distributes stock to IKEA’s existing 17 stores and to regional hubs for onward direct delivery to 170,000 customers. IKEA chose Peterborough for the centre because of its proximity to East Coast ports and the availability of a highly skilled workforce.

MENCAP

National learning disability charity Mencap, which works with people of all ages with learning disabilities and with their families and carers, recently opened new offices in Peterborough. It employs 50 staff in Peterborough, with HR and finance functions amalgamating here from offices in London and Bury St Edmunds.

Tesco

Tesco opened a distribution centre in Peterborough in 2005 providing a rapid turnaround operation for chilled and fresh produce which is delivered, sorted by individual store requirement and typically dispatched to stores within 12 hours. The company’s operations continue to expand and it now employs more than 1,000 staff in Peterborough.

Tritin

Tritin Limited, which supplies machinery and blades to the food processing industry, has relocated its office facilities to its factory site in Orton Southgate, Peterborough, to bring all departments under one roof.

The company set up the factory and test kitchen facilities in Peterborough in 2000 to take advantage of the city’s central location and its proximity to companies within the food processing industry.

VFM Services

VFM Services (Volume Fraud Management), which provides fraud prevention services for insurance and finance companies, has relocated the majority of its workforce to Peterborough following a period of growth and expansion.

VFM Services was established in 2000 by managing director Bill Jackson who, while working at Peterborough-based travel giant Thomas Cook, developed a new process for dealing with claims for lost or stolen travellers cheques. The process was created to help telephone operators discourage people from making inappropriate or false claims.

Following the success of the process, VFM was created to provide similar services and training for insurance and finance companies

The majority of VFM’s 75 staff have been relocated to Peterborough which has a highly-skilled workforce essential for the company. A number of large, established companies within VFM’s target market are based in Peterborough.

Webroster

Webroster Limited supplies and supports a fully internet-based work management tool – Webroster.net – to manage rostering and timesheet processes. A number of companies within healthcare, security, cleaning vehicle and teacher supply use Webroster to roster and manage internal shift patterns and other projects more efficiently and effectively.

Established in 2002, the company is continuing to build on its success and decided to relocate the business to Peterborough to improve accessibility for clients and staff by taking advantage of the city’s excellent transport connections.

The company plans to increase the sales team as well as expand its services.