VIDEO: See inside Marston's £10 million Wolverhampton HQ
It's the biggest and most dramatic office development Wolverhampton has seen in decades - and now you can see inside Marston's flash new headquarters.
At a cost put at 'nearly £10 million' by boss Ralph Findlay, city-based beer and pubs giant Marston's effectively rebuilt its head office in a 12-month operation that saw hundreds of staff moved over the road at Chapel Ash to the old Coniston House offices.
They worked there for a year, with a grandstand view of the work as Marston's House was stripped back to its concrete frame and liftshafts.
Now the doors have been opened and the Express & Star is the first news organisation to be given a look at a building the company believes can be a template for future office development in the city.
The eating area and some of the more relaxed working space on the ground floor looks like a rather classy pub, with bench seats, high stools, "but there's no bar and no beer," said Andy Kershaw, the Marston's surveyor who project managed the scheme.
But there is table football, a pool table and table tennis, and staff have already set up leagues in the few months since they moved into their new home, back in February.
The building is utterly unrecognisable from its previous incarnation, as a tired 1970s office. The two office blocks have been merged into one, while the rear car park is now a four-storey atrium, with walkways crossing overhead.
Rather than using the lifts – refurbished rather than replaced to help keep costs down – most people use the open iron staircase in the atrium. It was designed, manufactured and installed by a small Halesowen firm called Stair Designs.
Andy Kershaw said: "We have the best metal-bashers in the world on our doorstep; it would have been silly not to use them."
And around 95 per cent of the furniture in the building was supplied by Aldridge-based Swift, including around 500 chairs.
These range from the office seating to more sumptuous armchairs scattered around the building and comfy seating down in the atrium. And then there are the barrels. Arrayed along the front of each floor, overlooking the glass lined reception area, are rows of seats, in pairs facing each other, set in frames like the tops of beer barrels.
Mark Eaves is the facilities manager, in charge of the operation of the building and its visitors. He said: "Before we moved in, we brought people over in groups of 20 or 25. As soon as we got into the reception area, I made them look up. It always gets a 'wow'.
And it has become a popular destination. Staff have taken to holding meetings with customers in the array of ultra-modern meeting rooms rather than at one of the pubs, showing off their new home.
"In just six weeks after we moved in we had over 2,000 outside visitors," recalled Mark. "That's more than we had in the whole of last year."
Other features include the sound proofing; with 280 people working across the building all that can be heard in the atrium is a low murmur. Outside is a seating area with its own water feature, where people can choose to work at their laptops or enjoy their lunch.
It's so inviting, "We've had people coming round to the reception asking if they can come in to our beer garden," said Andy Kershaw.
Around 350 people are based at the office, although many are out on the road much of the week, travelling to see customers or to landlords at Marston's 1,700 pubs and restaurants. They are part of a 1,000 strong workforce in the city, spread across the Park Brewery – home of Banks's Bitter and Mild – and the distribution hub, handling deliveries to those pubs.
But the headquarters is the face of the business, and its hub.
"The people that work here are proud of the building," said property director Ed Hancock. "We even had a few tears from people when they first saw it. And it reflects Marston's, rather than just being a corporate headquarters."
And the effort that has gone into redesigning the building has included a lot of thought about how people work. Only chief executive Ralph Findlay has an office. Everyone else, including his fellow directors, share desks with the rest of the staff. There is a 'clean desk policy', so all paperwork and personal effects are stowed away in individual padlocked lockers at the end of the day.
The aim is to encourage people to work in different areas, and even different floors. The Marston's team believes this encourages staff from different departments to chat with each other, sparking new ideas and different approaches that can help improve the business.
By giving the building its own strong 'Marston's' personality and encouraging staff to interact more, they believe they overcome the problems of so-called 'hot desking', which has been accused of being sterile and characterless.
The result, says Ed Hancock, is a building that 'works'.
"I think we have the best office in the Midlands, and it beats some London places as well. Everyone here is incredibly proud of what we have achieved."
And that odd exterior made up of cladding of different browns and beiges? Apparently it reflects the different shades of beer and ale made by Marston's.