Sage to Leave Great Park in Newcastle
Tech giant Sage has confirmed it is moving its international head office out of Newcastle’s Great Park. The company has been based at Great Park for 15 years but the business will soon leave the site and move to Cobalt Business Park instead.
Sage has said it will invest £40m in the North East hub over the next three years, creating jobs and improving its customer experience. It has set itself an 18-month deadline to move its staff from Great Park to Cobalt.
Speaking to The Journal, Sage’s UK and Ireland managing director Sabby Gill said that the company had considered all of the local business parks before selecting Cobalt. The new office will provide staff with collaboration spaces and breakout spaces where teams can work together.
Mr Gill said: “We weighed up the options of what Great Park gives us today and what Cobalt gives us around our vision of being a SaaS company, which requires more collaboration space and an environment where employees can get together. It’s a space we want to build. It’s the gold standard that we have put in place everywhere else globally but we have never been able to do in the UK, until now.
Sage has confirmed it is moving its international head office out of Newcastle’s Great Park. The company has been based at Great Park for 15 years but the business will soon leave the site and move to Cobalt Business Park instead.
Sage has said it will invest £40m in the North East hub over the next three years, creating jobs and improving its customer experience. It has set itself an 18-month deadline to move its staff from Great Park to Cobalt.
Speaking to The Journal, Sage’s UK and Ireland managing director Sabby Gill said that the company had considered all of the local business parks before selecting Cobalt. The new office will provide staff with collaboration spaces and breakout spaces where teams can work together.
Mr Gill said: “We weighed up the options of what Great Park gives us today and what Cobalt gives us around our vision of being a SaaS company, which requires more collaboration space and an environment where employees can get together. It’s a space we want to build. It’s the gold standard that we have put in place everywhere else globally but we have never been able to do in the UK, until now.
“The move and change was never a cost exercise. It is all about making sure we had the right space and the right environment for our employees to fulfil our vision of being a great SaaS company. It wasn’t the cheapest option, it was the right option.”
Over the next three years the tech giant is planning to fill 500 jobs in product engineering, data science, support and sales. This includes around 200 open positions in the Newcastle, with the remainder being made in Manchester, Reading and London.
Mr Gill was unable to say at this point how many of the jobs would be newly created and how many of the rolls were being filled due to the natural churn at the business. However, he emphasised that the hires are being made to grow the business.
The investment will also include £1.6m to be spent on providing staff with training, as well as employing 150 apprentices and graduates.
By late 2020 nearly 2,000 employees will work at Sage’s new office at Cobalt Business Park.