NEWS

Some of the devastation in Sheffield

The recent devastating floods have not only caused chaos, disruption and heartache for individuals and families, many of whom are still unable to return to their homes. The sudden deluge has also had a massive impact on businesses across the UK, with many having to find short term or emergency accommodation in order to continue trading.

officebroker.com, the UK’s largest online commercial property broker, has seen a big hike in enquiries for emergency or short term office space – especially in the Sheffield area which appears to have been hit hardest by the freak June rainfall.

Established in 2001 by Birmingham-born entrepreneurs Jim Venables and Andy Haywood, officebroker.com is uniquely placed to help businesses secure flexible office accommodation wherever they are located in the UK. The company works with more than 90% of the UK’s serviced office space providers and landlords offering businesses immediate access to short or long term quality office accommodation.

One business which officebroker.com has assisted this week is Andrew McCarthy Associates - an independent ecological consultancy with offices in Sheffield and Exeter. Within an hour of receiving a call on Tuesday, officebroker.com was able to secure quality serviced office accommodation for the business and assist them in their emergency relocation to the Omnia One office on Queen Street in Sheffield.

“When it became apparent that we would have to move the business out of our permanent premises very quickly we were able, with the help of officebroker.com, to secure new short-term premises almost immediately,” says Andrew McCarthy.

“Obviously we are keen to move back into our own offices as soon as possible but that will depend on what happens with the weather over the next few days. In the meantime it has more or less been business as usual as officebroker.com were able to find us a space which met all our business needs very quickly.”

Sebastian Brown, Managing Director of Omnia (www.omniaoffices.co.uk), says his business, in conjunction with officebroker.com, has provided emergency office accommodation for at least five local companies this week.

We are happy that we have been able to assist a number of businesses at this difficult time

Jim Venables, MD, officebroker.com

As well as receiving numerous enquiries from individual firms, officebroker.com has also been contacted by disaster recovery specialists as they look to assist their clients following the floods.

One such firm is First Recovery which is now using officebroker.com as its first point of contact when searching for emergency office accommodation on behalf of clients.

Mike Calloway, Managing Director of First Recovery, says that officebroker.com has been given priority because “an immediate response and availability of premises is 100% crucial to us in the delivery of our service in conjunction with our Insurer partners.“

Commenting on the events, Managing Director of officebroker.com, Jim Venables, said: “Unfortunately, the floods which have caused devastation in Sheffield and other parts of the country have impacted not only on individual residents but also on businesses. While the true costs of the floods will not be known for some time, we are happy that we have been able to assist a number of businesses at this difficult time and, because of our strong relationship with the vast majority of the country’s serviced office providers, secure immediate or emergency accommodation for these businesses which has allowed them to get on with their work with the minimum amount of disruption.”

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