OCS moves UK HQ to Ipswich from Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk

OCS - formerly Atalian-Servest - is moving its headquarters from Vicon House in Bury St Edmunds - although it will retain a small presence in the town.

Daniel Dickson, chief executive of the £1.7bn turnover UK and Ireland arm of the global operation, said the lease was up and they needed larger premises anyway.

"We had outgrown the building and made the decision moving it 30 miles down the road to Ipswich suited us - it's a bigger town," he said.

Ipswich had some "really good transport links" and a direct train service into London. "That's key for us," he said.

The move would also make the company more accessible to talent living in and around Ipswich and along the A12 corridor into Essex - and open up many job opportunities in the local area, he added.

Recruitment in Bury St Edmunds has become difficult for a number of teams and departments over recent years, the company said.

Having got the keys at Christmas, the company has been renovating its new home- to be called New Century House and formerly occupied by accountants BDO - at The Havens, Ransomes Europark, ready for an official opening on April 8.

There are currently around 200 staff at the Bury office. "Due to growth - we have done two acquisitions in the past two months and with new contracts we are looking at about 300 out of Ipswich," said Mr Dickson.

"I think fairly quickly we will fill that office and will be looking for additional office space in Ipswich."

There would be jobs in areas such as HR, procurement and finance, he said.

When he joined the fast-growing business - then Servest - 12 years ago, it had a turnover of £25m compared to £1.7bn today. The global operation has a turnover of £2.2bn, he said.

"I think it's really positive for Ipswich - we employ 50,000 people," he said.

"Our plan is to double in size over the next five years. We should be employing 500 - 600 - 700 people in Ipswich. It's a fantastic statement for the town."

Local hotel businesses such as the Holiday Inn, Premier Inn, Milsoms and the Salthouse Harbour Hotel were likely to benefit, he said.

The former Copleston High and Northgate sixth form pupil moved to London six or seven years ago but came back to Ipswich 18 months ago. "I'm clearly a big supporter of the town," he said.

Rob Legge, chief executive of the parent company, OCS Group, also lives locally at Woodbridge.

"We did look at buildings in Bury but there weren't really any suitable," said Mr Dickson, who formerly worked in the finance industry. "When we looked at Ipswich we realised it would be a better solution."

The move would be a loss for Bury St Edmunds, he acknowledged. "A small part of the business will continue in Bury in the building opposite Asda. It's not great for Bury but I think it secures our future in Suffolk which I think is the most important thing."

For the past couple of years, recruitment has been much harder across the industry, he said.  "So we felt being in a larger town it would be easier to recruit," he said. "You have got a large geography to recruit from."

Bury workers on the east side were drawn to Ipswich and on the west to Cambridge, he explained.

Six years ago, Servest's South African parent sold Servest UK to a French group called Atalian and it became Atalian Servest.

A year ago the French group then sold the business to a private equity firm called CD&R. Around the same CD&R bought another business called OCS - which had a head office in Crawley - and put the two companies together. The Crawley office was closed.

As OCS was known in a few countries and was global, it was decided to rebrand the whole business as OCS, he explained. 

"The main good news is around jobs creation. We have done well in terms of growth and we are pretty confident we can continue to. They are investing a lot in our systems and our technology," he said.

"Our motto is to be the best. We want to be the best facilities management company globally. We have some really good managers who believe they can make that happen for us."

As well as Ipswich, OCS has offices in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Manchester and London.

OCS was founded in 1900 in London by Frederick William Goodliffe as a window cleaning service and rebranded as Office Cleaning Services (OCS) in 1930.

Today it has a workforce of 120,000 providing more than 8000 customers with facilities services, including cleaning, catering, security, pest control and waste management. Its clients include public and private sector organisations.

OCS said it wanted its new Suffolk headquarters "to be of excellent standard both in order to provide their colleagues with a working environment that they enjoy being in and to ensure that they have an office space that they are proud to bring customers to".  

There will be desks for 264 employees at the Ipswich site, and the workforce will benefit from a bistro area run by its catering division with an on-site chef.

The building is being renamed New Century House to reflect the history of OCS.

To celebrate the move, the company will be holding a 50km charity walk on Saturday, April 27, starting at Vicon House and ending at New Century House. It will be raising money for the OCS Foundation.