CORPORATE REAL ESTATE EXECUTIVE OR TEAM
Sponsored by
Winner: Bayer corporate property team
For this award the judges looked very closely at the role of the in-house real-estate executives and property teams, public-sector employees and company advisers – to discover a worthy winner demonstrating best practice while implementing a decisive property strategy.
The winner chosen by judges was a property team responsible for orchestrating the major relocation of a European headquarters after a 33-year stay in one town.
Jelf, broking specialists in insurance and financial planning sponsored this award. Jerry Wilson, regional managing director at Jelf, which has offices in Reading, Oxford and Guildford, announced the winner – the Bayer corporate property team.
Life sciences company Bayer will shortly begin the fit-out of its new offices at 400 South Oak Way in Green Park, Reading – enabling its headquarters relocation from Newbury.
Green Park owner Oxford Properties completed a major refurbishment of the building. Bayer has taken up 80,000 sq ft on a 15-year lease, and retained architects Perkins & Will to design the new office space, with the relocation move currently planned for the end of this year.
Bayer’s move will provide the company with state-of-the-art facilities and flexible workspaces, with easy access to main transport links.
The relocation follows Bayer’s divestment of its materials science business and its repositioning as a life sciences company, working across pharmaceuticals, consumer healthcare, crop science and animal health.
The company currently employs about 560 people at its site in Strawberry Hill, Newbury, where it has been based since 1983. It will be joining a business park location that is already home to some of the world’s largest brands and most successful companies across a variety
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – JUNE 2016
of business sectors. Bayer will retain its sites in Cambridge, where its crop science business is based, and in Dublin.
Afterwards, Parker Humbert, Bayer’s director of strategic change and transformation, and head of the project management office, explained: “There is a lot of pride in winning this award because we aren’t a group of experts in relocation, but a local team that doesn’t do this kind of thing all the time.
“So, to be able to take an approach which keeps your people and your business top of mind, but also to be recognised by the property industry as being top of class is really an honour. Often those positions are viewed as mutually exclusive because you are either doing what is best to get the job done or advocating for your people – in this case we were able to do both.”
Relocation was not an easy decision for Bayer, he admitted.
“We knew it was in the best interests of business longevity, and we felt Reading and Green Park was the area in which we wanted to grow, but we had a history in Newbury, and we really respected and appreciated that. The emotion involved with our people was not under-estimated. It was top of mind for us.
“We put a lot of pains into making sure we looked at all the options and partnered with the right groups so that our final decision was an informed one in which we had confidence to move forward.”
Every building considered by his team was looked at as a potential new home. “Which is exactly what our choice is for us – a new home for a new Bayer.”
businessmag.co.uk
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