Hampshire entrepreneurs James Wedge and Steve Barrett, school friends and long-time business collaborators have formed a new joint venture, the Central Business Hub Limited, to acquire Leydene House, a 12,300 sq ft office and industrial site on Waterberry Drive, part of the popular Bramble Farm Industrial Estate in Waterlooville.
Leydene House will become the new HQ for James’ 2 Teck Ltd, combining the air conditioning, electrical, mechanical and communications departments. Diamond Cut Refinishing Limited, a specialist alloy wheel refinishing business, owned jointly by James and Steve will also relocate to Leydene House to enable mass production of and customer support for its market ready next generation DC2 machine.
Commenting on their latest collaboration, James Wedge says: “I have known Steve since our school days and when we left, we both went on to establish our own business portfolios. For me that was 2 Teck and Steve established Express Paints, a specialist automotive equipment, consumables and paint supplier.
“In 2014 we combined our skills to create three businesses in the automotive sector and these have been well received by the industry. Steve is a true entrepreneur with exceptional business development experience in this sector.
“Coming together under one roof will provide a base for us to continue to oversee the development of both our established and newer businesses and we will be able to expand the Portable and Xpress Centres which are currently growing rapidly.”
Having acquired Leydene House through Holloway Iliffe & Mitchell, James and Steve are continuing to use Director Stuart Mitchell for Portable and Xpress Centres expansion plans. Stuart comments: “We are exploring a number of possible sites across a wide georgraphy. Xpress Centres currently operate out of Tesco Extra car parks which is popular with customers who can get repairs done quickly and locally. Over the next 6-12 months we will be looking for suitable sites for both the Xpress and Portable Centres to establish new outlets, both in the south and around the country.
“Bramble Farm is a popular location for businesses with easy transport access to both the A3(M) and M27. Leydene House offers flexible space and we had a number of interested purchasers as soon as the site on the maket and with the continued squeeze on available industrial space, we are pleased James and Steve secured the leasehold.”
Leydene House offers a mixture of office and industrial production space over two floors as well as almost 100m2 of garage and over 30 staff and visitor parking places. 2 Teck and Diamond Cut Refinishing will move all staff and operations by the end of October, following the fit out process currently underway.
Hughes Ellard was joint agent for Leydene House.