Member Article

York Science Park successes fly the nest

Two residents of York Science Park have outgrown their current office space and are moving on to bigger premises in York.

Creative digital agency, The Distance, started life in 2012 at York Science Park’s purpose-built incubation space, Springboard.

In its first seven months, The Distance expanded so rapidly that its floor space had to triple to cater for the size of its new team and it moved across the Science Park to new offices in The Catalyst.

Now employing 18 staff, and with an ever growing client list and turnover forecast to hit £1 million this year, from February 2014 The Distance will be based in a converted Grade Two listed building in Skeldergate, in the heart of the city.

The company specialises in ecommerce, mobile apps and digital marketing and has seen phenomenal growth since its launch.

Founded by Anthony Main and Ryan Atkins, The Distance works with a wide range of clients from large organisations such as the NHS, Moshi Monsters and Astra Zeneca through to local SME’s including York Coffee Emporium.

Anthony Main, director and co-founderof The Distance said: “Choosing to start our business on York Science Park has played a key role in its rapid growth.

“We’ve been able to develop many very productive partnerships and collaborations with other residents, which have really helped us move forward.

“We have also been able to work very closely with a number of Departments at the University including those of Theatre, Film and Television and Computer Science.

“We are now very excited to be moving to our new offices in York and looking forward to 2014 as the year when we can consolidate our business, continue to expand and enhance our client relationships and fine tune our latest product, which we will be launching in the Summer.”

The second business to be moving on from York Science Park is Rapita Systems Ltd., who started up in 2004 as a spin out from University of York’s Computer Science Department. The company moved into York Science Park’s IT Centre in 2005 and still has a close relationship with the University through Board membership.

Rapita Systems, which now has offices on Link Business Park, Osbaldwick, is a technology company which creates tools to test the effectiveness of software in safety-critical real-time areas such as avionic flight.

The company now employs 30 staff and exports to clients around the world, including Europe, China, Brazil, Canada and the USA.

Guillem Bernat, CEO of Rapita Systems commented: “York Science Park has been an excellent location for us and created a superb platform for success.

“Over the years it has helped us maintain our long established links with the University of York and attract high quality staff to meet our expansion plans.”

Tracey Smith, York Science Park managing director, said: “Whilst we are sad to see both The Distance and Rapita Systems leave we are delighted that by being based here on York Science Park we have played some part in their success.

“They are both fantastic organisations with creative and dedicated teams and we wish them both every success in the future.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Clare Burnett .