Page 4 - link magazine

West Swindon business centre celebrates a decade in the town

BASEPOINT Business Centre at the years, successes and plans for
Rivermead Drive, home to over 90 small 2015 and beyond.
and medium sized firms, celebrates ten LINK: What’s been the biggest
years in operation this year. challenge during your time at
The occasion will be marked on Basepoint?
Wednesday 4 February when the Mayor LC: I started at Basepoint in 2006
of Swindon Theresa Page unveils a and recession hit two years later.
commemorative plaque.
On the same day Basepoint will host a The market conditions made it very
difficult to ensure the centre had
free networking lunch for licencees and a sustainable number of tenants.
business in the wider community. Being a new facility, the excellent
Lyn Chapman became centre manager
18 months after the building opened and location and the Basepoint easy-in,
has worked hard to establish Basepoint easy out terms are our major selling
points, which I’ve emphasised at
Manager Lyn Chapman toasts ten years for Basepoint in the town. The Link met with Lyn to networking events.
find out more about her challenges over
The majority of our clients
come from existing client
recommendations. Building and
sustaining excellent relations with
our licencees is key to this.
LINK: What’s changed in the last
10 years?
LC: The company’s ethos is to
continually keep abreast of what’s
happening in the marketplace and
we are constantly updating our
offering.
In March 2014 we extended the
car park and we’ve also invested
in improved internet and telecoms
packages. Keeping up appearances
is also really important and in
February a partial refurbishment
will commence, with new carpets
being installed in the hallways and
refreshed paintwork.
LINK: What do you think makes
Basepoint different?
LC: Uniquely Basepoint is wholly
owned by a charitable trust, the ACT
Foundation-the Airlines Charitable
Trust - set up by British Airways 20
years ago. All of Basepoint’s taxable
profits are donated under Gift Aid to
the foundation. The first Basepoint
Business Centre was launched in
Romsey, Hampshire and is still going
strong.
LINK: What has been your business
highlight?
LC: December 2014 was a real cause
for celebration. We hit a 100 per
cent occupancy rate for
the first time which See details
was really exciting of the Basepoint
and indicates the Hub networking
marketplace is event on 4 Febuary
improving a lot. at: basepoint.co.uk/
A personal locations/swindon/
highlight was networkinghub
receiving the
01793 608800 Basepoint employee
[email protected] of the year award in 2010. It
was highly unexpected and I felt
Basepoint_Swnd immensely proud to be recognised
by the company for all my effort and
contribution towards its success.
4 swindonlink.com n February 2015