The Key Move: all you need to know about our new Manchester workspace

New address:

The Basement
Swan Buildings
20 Swan Street
Manchester
M4 5JW

We’ve now outgrown Naval Street after being the first creative agency to adopt Ancoats at the start of the redevelopment 16 years ago. When we took on the derelict space in The Swan Buildings a few years ago, we weren’t expecting to be moving during a pandemic, but the new ways of working adopted over the last 5 months have fast-tracked changes in working we were looking to implement. Flexible working is now the norm, remote working is as efficient, and the new workspace is very much a place where our teams come together to collaborate – ideas are limitless, creativity is maximised, stories are shared and creative brilliance is formed.

“A happy, engaged team is a proactive, enthused team. A great place to work is much more than a physical space. Combined with flexible working, new technologies and a culture of continual learning and recognition, our new space comes together to create a positive environment for the team to perform and grow.” Phil Marshall, MD

The 7500 sq.ft open plan floor has been designed to facilitate collaborative and flexible working between clients and teams (we’ve no problem with social distancing here!). The team pride themselves on producing engaging content, with the flexibility and agility required by the pacy sectors they work within and the new Manchester space supports this ethos. Lightning connection speeds to the outside world also brings with it the opportunity to live stream between multiple studios and clients, to ‘virtually’ get the right heads around the table. This not only increases our agility but also removes unnecessary travel and the associated costs both financially and environmentally.

Aligned to our core role in narrating brand stories and content creation, the space has been designed to aid creativity and thought featuring breakout areas and our new coffee shop ‘Sadler & Swain’, our coffee lounge, come café bar – a communal area for lunch or out of hours events. The introduction of an event area will allow us to continue to play an active role in the industry and share knowledge from our specialist teams across the group (Eat & Breathe and JGM) as well as visiting thought-leaders.

“We’ve been really enjoying settling in and putting our stamp on the place. Our new coffee shop brand ‘Sadler & Swain’ was born during lockdown from a few conversations around the history of our new building. As creatives it’s important to take inspiration from your surroundings and the new workspace allows us to think, spark ideas and get together to produce awesome work.” Dan Hough, Head of Creative

The new studio is also the home to Eat & Breathe, our specialist photography and video facility. Led by specialist food photographer, Chloe Warde, it features new, airy studios and a content production kitchen and an access to a large bank of props to support content for our hospitality, retail and manufacturer clients. Read more here.

If you’d like to drop in for a visit, get in touch – we’d love to see you.