DLA Architecture, a leading UK practice which employs over 75 people nationwide, has relocated its Manchester office to facilitate future growth plans. The top 100* UK practice has moved its North West team of eight from Albert Square in the city centre to larger premises at 86 King Street.

The move will allow DLA to achieve targets to more than double in size in the North West within the next 12 months as it sets out ambitious plans to grow its business in core areas including education and housing.

Gary Wolstenholme recently joined the practice as Associate to support the North West teams’ growth and is currently involved with the school’s portfolio. DLA is also looking to recruit three more architects in the region.

The announcement follows the company’s recent rebrand and succession announcement where it outlined a more streamlined proposition to focus on high quality, commercial architecture.

Jonathan Knowles, Group Board Director and Head of the Manchester office, said,

“During this last unprecedented year, we have re-evaluated our core values and assets and are delighted to emerge as a well-structured business with reduced overheads and strong cash flow.

“As part of this process, we are pleased to announce our relocation to new premises which not only facilitates growth but also offers flexible, high tech ‘drop in’ workspaces for our clients and partners.

“Having established in Manchester 20 years ago, we already have a firm foothold and reputation for delivering contextual, narrative led solutions for our clients and close collaboration with our Leeds office allows us to provide a more holistic Northern Powerhouse perspective on regionally significant projects.”

Current clients for DLA in the North West include prolific North West developer Network Space for which it has a long-standing partnership, and the Ministry of Defence for which it is designing several carbon neutral housing projects nationwide.

Its education sector work has also increased significantly through three existing schools’ frameworks with a requirement for low carbon, off site modular construction, including the Kings Leadership Academy in Bolton. DLA is also consulting on the complex redevelopment of Shot Tower, a building with strong cultural heritage in Chester, to deliver residential homes.

DLA Architecture has been established for more than 40 years with offices in Manchester, Leeds and London. The award-winning practice employs over 75 architects, landscape architects, architectural technologists and graphic designers.

DLA has identified strong growth in the residential sector where it is currently advising on schemes comprising more than 13,000 homes. The industrial sector is expected to increase during the next 12 months with DLA actively looking at over 10,000,000 sq ft of development opportunities and education is also one of the fastest growing sectors for DLA leading into 2021.

DLA is recognised nationally for its award-winning work which includes the sensitive, £21 million PPP delivered community project at Hackney Gardens in London and the transformation of the iconic Majestic building in Leeds city centre. Its expertise covers a broad range of sector including learning, sport, industry, care, workplace, housing, retail, conservation and re-use.

The Insights People, the global leader in kids, parents and family market intelligence, is delighted to welcome 8 new starters to its rapidly growing business.

Ricky Myers who joins from Argentina-based kids media agency KidsCorp as Business Development Director for Latam. Georgie Martin joins from the BBC as Research Manager, Rachel Gleave joins from Manchester-based Media More Sales as Research Executive. On the tech side, Jon Parnham, Andy Patterson and Jack McKelvey all come onboard as Junior Developers having graduated from Northcoders. With Gemma Just and Victoriya Holland join to strengthen the marketing team as Graphic Designer and PR & Marketing Executive respectively.

Ricky Myers, The Insights People, Business Development Director – LATAM comments:

“I’m looking forward to collaborating with best-in-class talent, to bring real-time insights into the Latin American kids & teens ecosystem. I hope to see businesses across the region improve their ROI, through a deep understanding of emerging flash trends – as well as gaining a holistic understanding of their target’s way of life”

Georgie Martin, The Insights People, Research Manager comments:

“After such a successful year of growth and development, I’m very excited to be joining The Insights People. As Research Manager I hope to help shape and advance the bespoke research side of the business, building strong client relationships and providing critical insight”

Nick Richardson Founder & CEO of The Insights People adds,

“We have started 2021 where we left off in 2020, and I am delighted to be welcoming such incredible talent to our business – who share our vision of becoming the business-critical tool for all major brands who operate in the kids, parents and family space”

The Insights People have also extended its Advisory Board with Prof Dr. Ger Graus OBE, Global Director of Education at KidZania; Danielle Davis, former VP Content Partnerships & Revenue at of Discovery; Tony Allen, CEO of the Age Check Certification Scheme; and Dr. Gemma Taylor, Lecturer in Developmental Psychology at the University of Salford all joining to help shape advise the business with its future development.

A Manchester-based translation and language services provider has achieved double digit growth in its client base despite challenging international trading conditions.

The Translation People, which has offices in Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow and Tunbridge Wells, as well as in Germany, France and the US, welcomed 570 new clients in 2020, which accounts for 11.7 per cent growth across the group. The majority of these new clients are UK-based businesses, including online department store Fruggo, Hitachi Europe and charities Oxfam and Refuge.

The success comes despite the challenges on international trade inflicted by COVID-19 and Brexit, following several years of investment in technology-based workflows and solutions geared towards improving efficiencies and productivity. These include automated transcription tools, website connectors and intelligent machine translation technologies, as well as the rollout of a remote interpreting offering, which enabled businesses to reach overseas teams and customers whilst global travel restrictions were in place.

The Translation People is predicting additional growth in 2021 and aims to double its revenues in the next four years.

Jasmin Schneider, managing director of The Translation People, said: “We had anticipated the last 12 months would be turbulent as we drew closer to the Brexit deadline, however, COVID-19 introduced an unexpected challenge for businesses across the world.

“Thankfully, we’re an agile business and were able to adapt quickly. Boosted by the investments we’ve been making into intelligent translation technology over the last few years, which are designed to improve workflows and increase productivity, we were able to support clients to communicate vital messages to customers and employees around the world, no matter what language was required.

“Additionally, we used this technology to help mitigate the impact of international travel bans, helping clients communicate effectively when the world slowed down, including our remote interpreting platform, which allowed multi-language meetings and conferences to take place without the need for people to travel.

“The pandemic has accelerated people’s trust in technology, and we have been able to demonstrate that using the right software and platforms, travel isn’t always necessary to achieve the same outputs, outcomes or productivity. This capability has attracted new businesses to work with us, including a wealth of household names who have found our translation services vital to ensuring they can protect people and deliver essential services both in the UK and around the globe.

“We are now looking ahead to what 2021 holds. The last 12 months taught us that everything can change overnight, but our ability to acclimatise in the wake of something as extraordinary as COVID-19 gives us confidence to continue on our growth plans this year.”

The Translation People has over 40 years’ experience of delivering high quality translation services to clients around the world. With a global network of over 4,500 professional translators, the company offers over 300 different language combinations, operating from nine offices across Europe and the USA to service customers, which range from global brands to smaller, independent businesses.