Businesses growing within the Waterfront

Ipswich Waterfront is becoming home to an increasing range of businesses, many more than restaurants, coffee bars and entertainment venues.

The whole atmosphere of the area is vibrant and interesting all year round, not just when there are special events on such as Maritime Ipswich Festival which had crowds thronging the quayside.

The Trebuchet creative agency, with offices in the Neptune Marina building, is one of the businesses thriving there.

I was chatting to Trebuchet PR and marketing director Sue Wilcock over coffee about the Waterfront experience.

She said: “There is no doubt that this is the happening place in Ipswich, no matter what the weather or the time of day, the waterfront always seems to be buzzing and full of activity. When walking into town at lunchtime, we are always bumping into clients and friends – it is virtually impossible to travel incognito!

“Personally, I think it is a good job that our office faces the wrong way, as with the waterfront view out of the window, the team would never get anything done.

“We are really excited that at long last, it looks as though the regeneration of the waterfront is going to be kick-started with the purchase of the ‘wine rack’ underway and the council attempting to speed up activity around the derelict R&W Paul building.

“One concern for us though is the availability of (reasonably priced) car parking and we are worried that as there are only going to be more and more people attracted to work, live and visit the waterfront, where are the public parking spaces going to be to accommodate? As a business, we don’t have a choice, we have to use our cars, as we are in and out of the office throughout the working day visiting clients.”

Another concern is how easy it is to walk from the town centre to the waterfront.

“There are so many pedestrian crossings on the one-way system that it is becoming a pain whether you are in the car or on foot to get anywhere. We think the council should be looking at pedestrian footbridges to go over the roads or, if we were being very futuristic and innovative, why couldn’t we have a overhead mono-rail that takes pedestrians to and from the waterfront and town centre?”

Just who are Trebuchet?

She said: “We are an integrated creative agency that works to raise the profile of our clients, so they are saying the things they want to say, to the people they want to say them to, when they want to say it. Our clients are diverse and encompass not-for-profit, small start-ups, SMEs and multi-million pound stock market listed companies. The products and services they sell range from African art safaris to nuclear engineering, children’s play equipment to offshore oil and gas platforms and all points in between.

“A common factor across them all is that they are always impressed when they visit us for the first time and we take then for a coffee on the Waterfront.

“One thing we are quite proud of is the length of time our clients stay with us. We work hard to make sure that we provide a great service at a reasonable price and that we don’t over-promise. Testament to this is that a number of our clients have been with us for over a decade, and the working relationship has developed to such an extent that they have now become friends with us personally.”