One of the largest property services companies in the UK is poised for further regional expansion with a new office in Hampshire.
Ian Williams, which has Welsh roots dating back to 1946 and employs more than 900 staff, is responsible for the modernisation and maintenance of more than 400,000 homes annually.
The company, a specialist in social housing, independent education and public buildings, has signed a five-year lease on a ground-floor office at 2 Wessex Way, Colden Common, near Winchester.
Hughes Ellard, the independent commercial property consultancy, acted on behalf of Ian Williams as advisors and search-and-acquisition agents.
Ten staff from Ian Williams, which carries out external and internal works, will operate out of the 130 sq m (1,400 sq ft) office, covering the Southampton region.
It is the 15th office for the company, which is headquartered at Chipping Sodbury, near Bristol, and has partnerships extending as far ahead as 2033.
Mike Turner, the company’s development director, said: “Our new office provides an excellent working environment in which to further expand our reach across the region, delivering direct services to clients such as Hampshire County Council, Southampton City Council and Winchester City Council.
“We’re grateful to Hughes Ellard for superb liaison, ensuring our office lease transaction went through smoothly and in a timely manner.”
Harnish Patel, a chartered surveyor for Hughes Ellard, has an office letting and client services remit in the Solent Corridor.
He said: “It’s great to see Ian Williams, one of the leading property services companies in the UK, sign up to a new office from which to grow the business regionally.
“We are regularly asked by clients to represent them in finding suitable premises and negotiate the best lease terms or purchase price possible, and it is also important to ensure the transaction happens quickly and smoothly.
“A pressing issue that expanding firms now have is that most of the best office accommodation in the Solent Corridor has already been taken. There is little spare capacity in the market for quality Grade A stock. Much of this has been absorbed by occupiers over the two past two years as the wider economy has strengthened.
“There is a further squeeze on availability because some long-vacant offices are being converted to residential flats under new Permitted Development Rights. This is particularly apparent across Southampton.”
Ian Williams, which has an annual turnover of £96.6m, provides a broad range of facilities management services to the built environment. They include painting, gas and electrical installations and maintenance, bathroom and kitchen refurbishments and renewable energy solutions.
Sir Robert Hillier, then chairman of Business Link Wessex, opened the offices at 2 Wessex Way in May 2003.
Rent details of the lease were not disclosed.
Recent contract awards for Ian Williams include a £1m makeover of the historic frontage of Britannia Royal Naval College in Dartmouth, a £4m deal with Exeter City Council to paint, repair and maintain its homes and £200,000 worth of work to decorate accommodation lodges at Center Parcs Longleat Forest, Wiltshire.
Closer to its new office in Hampshire, Ian Williams restored historic Southwick House at HMS Dryad, Fareham, the country house where, on June 5, 1944, General Dwight D. Eisenhower made the momentous decision to launch the D-Day invasion the next day. Involving three million men, occupied Europe went on to be liberated from Nazi Germany.
In another example of local work, the company painted Cranbury Day Centre, Southampton, a day-service resource centre run by Two Saints Housing Association and catering for homeless people.
In 1946, the year Ian Williams was established, bread rationing was imposed, coal mines were nationalised and family allowance was introduced. Stevenage was earmarked as Britain’s first new town to alleviate overcrowding and replace bombed homes in London in the wake of the Second World War.
