This time last year we wrote about why we chose Warrington and why it’s been our home for more than 15 years.
Since then, Warrington has continued to thrive and grow.
With over half of the DriveWorks team living in and around Warrington, we think its a great place to live, work and socialise but it’s not just us who think that, more and more research suggests that Warrington is the place to be.
Major Business Growth in Recent Years
Red Flag Alert recently identified Warrington as one of the Entrepreneurial Hotspots in the UK.
Red Flag’s research found that Warrington is the second biggest entrepreneurial hotspot outside of London, in the UK. With 64 incorporations per 1,000 people.
Mark Halstead, managing director of Red Flag Alert, said: “Warrington South benefits from being strategically placed between two large cities in Manchester and Liverpool. Warrington itself has seen major business growth in recent years, particularly in the science and tech sectors.”
For us, our location is incredibly important. We’re based really close to Manchester and Liverpool airports and the major motorways that connect the UK (M6/M62/M56).
Our location makes it easy for our visitors from far and wide to find us and for travelling to and from the office ourselves, without getting caught in the city traffic.
As an entrepreneurial hotspot, there are increasing initivaties that are connecting tech companies and supporting businesses in the area such as the Warrington Business Exchange and Made Smarter NorthWest that we are proud to be a part of.
“The North West has been chosen as the first to benefit from Made Smarter, given the region’s strong reputation in both manufacturing and innovation.”
– Donna Edwards, Programme Director, Made Smarter Pilot
A Balanced Tech Cluster
Warrington has been ranked in the UK’s top 20 destinations for high-growth technology businesses, beating its city rivals in terms of funds raised to support company expansions.
The findings have been revealed in the latest Tech Nation Survey which reviews the sector. Warrington is home to companies such as Dassault Systems, Hewlett Packard, Tata Consulting services and of course, DriveWorks.
The report showed that £88m was raised by Warrington companies to fund ‘second stage’ expansion of their proven business models between 2015 and 2018 – more than anywhere else in the North West.
We are proud to be one of these thriving businesses, developing our award winning software in Warrington.
This year, we have recieved two local High Sheriff’s Awards, for Innovation and Export and two of the highest accolades available to UK businesses, the Queen’s Awards for Enterprise. The Queen’s Awards recognise businesses for outstanding achievement and we are honoured to have received two awards for Innovation and for International Trade.
“Warrington has developed a balanced tech cluster, which has not been an easy thing to pull off, but it will be key to the town’s prosperity moving forward.”
– Steve Park, Managing Director of Warrington & Co
Unleashing Warrington’s Potential
Starting in 2012, Warrington’s economic growth and regeneration programme, Warrington Means Business has aimed to unleash the potential of Warrington’s people, its businesses, its connectivity, and its places. Accelerating economic growth and reinforcing Warrington as a strong national driver of prosperity.
Warrington Means Business is committed to driving growth not only through regeneration and development but including culture, skills development, encouraging enterprise, providing affordable homes, supporting local businesses and attracting investment and marketing.
In 2017, a £142 million redevelopment of Warrington Town Centre began.
When completed early next year, the scheme will create a new family-friendly shopping, restaurant and leisure experience that will have a newly developed, contemporary market hall and a state-of-the-art multiplex cinema at its heart.
For us, Warrington town centre provides somewhere that is close to the office and suitable for socialising outside of work. It also gives us an exciting location to take our visitors from around the world to see and experience where we live and work as well as providing great venues to hold our annual technical training event, DriveWorks World.
“Warrington is becoming increasingly attractive as a place to invest and to live. The Town Centre in particular is becoming a real focus for urban living.”
– Cllr. Russ Bowden, Warrington Borough Council leader
Business Hubs Across the UK Deserve Recognition
Management Today named Warrington as one of the Top 20 locations in the UK to do business with.
The Office for National Statistics found the Cheshire and Warrington economy has grown faster than anywhere else in England.
Warrington is one of only 14 UK towns or cities defined as ‘high wage and low welfare’, with 79.8 per cent of its population in employment.
The research found that the Warrington local business base is diverse, but is particularly strong in energy, engineering, logistics and software.
We support our local community and our proud memebers of of Manchester Digital, Cheshire & Warrington Growth Hub and the Warrington Business Exchange.
With more and more tech and digital businesses like ours moving to Warrington, we are able to use our community to come together to collaborate, creating a better connected, more cohesive and stronger economy in Warrington.
“London rightly has a world-class reputation, but that doesn’t mean the rest of the country should live in its shadow – there are great business hubs across the UK that deserve recognition.”
-Adam Gale, Management Today Editor
A Place to Be Proud of
Descriped as the gate way to the north, Warrington and Cheshire offers a wealth of culture, business, and opportunities.
Warrington Borough Council has a vision to ‘Grow a strong Warrington’. Within its four pledges to the community it has set out to ‘Grow a strong economy’ and ‘Create a place to be proud of’”.
With the redevelopment of the town centre and investment being spread across a number of sites, Warrington is quickly becoming a business and leisure hub of the North West and we’re proud to be a part of it.
Join Us!
Like the sound of our location and what Warrington has to offer?
Come and join us!
We’re always looking for talented people to join our team of software developers, creatives, marketers, engineers and all-round tech geeks.