The Wilton Centre’s prominent position at the heart of Teesside’s industrial revival has attracted another new occupier.
Survey 3Di NE Ltd – a subsidiary of Aberdeen-based Survey 3Di Ltd – has opened an office to look for opportunities in both the area and with some of its neighbours. More than 60 companies are based at the centre and over the past 18 months other businesses working in energy, engineering and construction have set up operations there. They include Costain, TRL and Glacier Energy.
Survey 3Di’s Engineering Director Kevin Woodhouse, who comes from Stockton, said: “It’s going to be so busy on Teesside over the next few years and it made sense to have a team down here to try to service the requirements.
“With all the different companies here already we saw it as a good base to interact and, with the prospect of more coming in, it’s a logical step to be in the Wilton Centre.”
Survey 3Di was launched in 2019 and supports its global energy customers with dimension control surveys and laser scanning. Dimension control surveys provide accurate three dimensional measurements for complex engineering design and building projects. Laser scanning allows the “mass capture” of data showing, for example, how an oil or gas rig has been constructed. Safety reviews or de-commissioning plans, for instance, can then be carried out from a desktop rather than through expensive visits offshore. The company also works on smaller engineering projects.
Three engineers are being recruited for the Wilton Centre office and three surveyors, all from Teesside, are transferring from Aberdeen. That means they and 62-year-old Kevin no longer have a 600-mile round trip between home and work.
Although he served his apprenticeship on Teesside and has been back in the area for the last three years, Kevin spent around 30 years working in the North East of Scotland. “Back then there weren’t companies with a requirement for engineering design so you had to move away for long-term work. But thankfully that’s now changed and the business sees the North East as a boom area. It’s a great opportunity and really exciting,” he said.
Claire Morton, the Centre’s Leasing and Assistant Asset Manager, added: “We’re delighted to welcome Kevin and his colleagues and the company’s decision to come here demonstrates yet again the value of our location, the quality of our facilities and the potential our occupiers have to do business with each other.”
The Wilton Centre, which is just outside the boundary of the Teesside Freeport, is now 90% full. As well as providing work space for companies like Survey 3Di, its offices and laboratories are much in demand from life science businesses. It is owned by Pioneer Group which has another nine sites in the UK and Ireland and are home to 350 businesses.
