One of Nottingham's largest employers is hoping an imminent office move could bring £50m and be a catalyst for change and development in the city. Domestic and General [D&G] has around nine million customers across the country and is about to make the switch from its office space in Talbot Street to Station Street later this year.
The company, which CEO Matthew Crummack jokingly refers to as "the UK's best kept secret", is a provider of aftercare for millions of domestic appliances, offering repairs and breakdown cover for homes across the country. Mr Crummack took over in October last year after the sudden and sad death of former CEO Ian Mason in 2021, and previously acted as Group CEO at GoCompare before making the switch to D&G.
He believes the Midlands is overlooked in terms of investment and what it can bring to the rest of the country and wants to be a driving force behind creating jobs and opportunities, as well as working within communities through its work. D&G is currently sponsoring the Commonwealth Games which is taking place in Birmingham.
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Mr Crummack told Nottinghamshire Live: "I think it's an overlooked region - it's not just about D&G, I have a number of connections with the Midlands. I think when you look at all the media attention and all the investment and what everybody is talking about, whether it's Andy Burnham in Manchester or Leeds and the tech centre there, or why Scotland wants more or why Wales wants more - the Midlands gets overlooked.
"So I think for us we've got this critical hub in Nottingham. We have seven million customers in the UK and many of them get serviced by people that work in or around Nottingham. So for actually servicing them and doing a great job with them, both our customers and employees, it's actually pretty fundamental to the way our business operates. It's a big investment for us.
"So making the working environment work for our people in Nottingham is actually also really important."
The company recently increased their starting salary for new starters by 16%, which they called an "important move" to make. 40% of its workforce are under the age of 30. Although the new office is nearly ready to open, employees will not be forced to go in there every day, as D&G has adopted a flexible working policy, meaning staff can decide if they would rather go into the office or work from home on any given day.
Once complete D&G’s operations hub on Station Street will be able to host up to 1,000 employees and it has signed a 15-year lease with the building. Its old offices will be turned into a new student development in the city centre.
"I think there was a study done when we instigated this move, which was to sell our place and convert it into student flats and then redevelop the building opposite the station. The idea was that it would bring £50m in added benefit to the city over the lifetime of that investment.
"It takes companies like ours sometimes to do something like the redevelopment of the site for that site then, not only to provide jobs for the construction and redevelopment of that site, but then often to be a catalyst for institutions, shops or cafes around that site as well. It often becomes a stimulus and I think it is very incumbent sometimes on businesses to invest.
"And you see it in Nottingham, there are some beautiful buildings, there are some new buildings but there are also some buildings that have been vacated and I think it's businesses that can help really invest in that and help the city develop itself and smarten up. And we'll have left the imprint of a couple of buildings there that look hopefully a lot better than they would have done.
"We're very proud of our association with Nottingham and the Midlands and you can tell by both what I do in the business and what I do personally that I invest a lot of time, energy and money into the region and Nottingham both professionally and personally."
Around 2.4 million appliances are repaired every year by D&G’s network of 9,000 engineers, which saves the machines going to landfill. D&G has recently also entered the US market for the first time in its over 100 year history.
On sponsoring the Commonwealth Games, which was a decision made earlier this year, Mr Crummack said: "Who we partner with and what we do is of real importance, because we have our values and looking at what the Commonwealth Games is all about which is very much back to grassroots, a real focus on inclusivity, it has a fantastic opening ceremony, and it is a real credit to the region in terms of what it does.
"But it also aligns very closely with what we aspire to and putting those values together was something that was pretty interesting to us."
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