JD Sports has become the latest business to announce it is moving its entire high-tech production team to Manchester’s pioneering Sharp Project.
Completed in 2011, the city council-owned profit-for-purpose development has already attracted some of the UK’s brightest digital entrepreneurs and production companies. Funding for the uniquely designed 200,000sq ft project — its internal Red Street is made up of 32 converted shipping containers — was provided jointly by Manchester City Council, the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA) and the European Regional Development Fund.
Claiming to be the second-largest cluster of creative and media industries in Europe, the £16.5m Sharp Project not only contains 40 serviced offices but four production stages and four green screen suits.
Now the Bury-based sports retailer has confirmed it has taken 10,400sq ft of production space at the complex on a £2m long-term lease. Its 58 designers, writers and photographers, will relocate from their Pilsworth headquarters this September, and work from a new mezzanine floor being built at the state-of-the-art campus.
The Sharp Project has been chosen due to the presence of other creative and digital businesses based in the building, which the team at JD is keen to engage and work with, explained Peter Cowgill, executive chairman at JD Sports Fashion.
Working from its new home the team will produce multi-channel content across a dozen of the group’s brands to service its global multi-channel business. In addition to JD’s own brand, the creative department will delivercontent for Size?, Bank, Scotts, Tessuti, Blacks, Millets, Ultimate Outdoors and Foot Patrol.
“This is a very exciting step for us,” Cowgill added. “Taking this facility at The Sharp Project means we can facilitate our rapid growth and future demands while still keeping it local. We are a forward looking company and taking permanent production space is an innovative approach for a retailer that enables us to be much more self-sufficient and productive.
“By combining all of our content, photography, design and production into a single multi-channel team we will be able to keep ahead of the competition.”
As chief operating officer at The Sharp Project, Rose Marley, sees JD’s arrival at the site as completing its shift from a drama based production facility to the home of commercial content production. “JD Sports Fashion is keen to infuse with the building’s ecology, bringing fantastic opportunities for our tenants with specialist skills,” she said. “They will also be looking for local talent, creating employment and apprentice opportunities for Manchester people.”
Manchester City Council is equally enthusiastic about the retailer taking the largest commercial space at the project so far. “It’s great to have a worldwide business base themselves at The Sharp Project making a significant investment into their presence on site,” commented council leader, Sir Richard Leese.
“The Creative Digital sector in Manchester is going from strength to strength and The Sharp Project has been a big part of that story and continues to deliver opportunities for local people,” he added.
Previous Post
New City Design Chief looks forward to Challenge
