Welsh co-working venues Tramshed Tech and Town Square are expanding with new sites across Wales as demand for local shared work spaces and support for businesses continues to grow.
Tramshed Tech has opened its latest co-working hub at the Goodsheds venue in Barry, the first sustainable urban high street in Britain, offering a co-working space alongside bookable private work and meeting rooms.
The business incubator already has sites in Cardiff's Grangetown and One Central Square, Newport Market, and now Barry, with plans to open in Newport's Innovation Station and Swansea's Palace Theatre in 2023.
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Councillor and leader of the Vale of Glamorgan Council Lis Burnett said: “The Goodsheds is a hugely imaginative and successful urban regeneration project and a great example of collaboration between the public and private sectors, brought about by developer DS Properties, the Vale of Glamorgan Council, Welsh Government and Newydd Housing Association.
“It is a fantastic development that has breathed new life into an important and historic local building and created much needed jobs, homes and leisure facilities for the benefit of Barry and beyond. It is part of widespread regeneration work taking place across Barry and follows on from a series of similar schemes."
Louise Harris, Tramshed Tech co-founder and chief executive, said: "Tramshed Tech recently sponsored the Vale of Glamorgan Business Awards, and it was so inspiring to see the innovation, creativity and talent across the Vale. Over the past 6 months, we have opened three new locations across South Wales, including One Central Square, Cardiff, Griffin House, Newport Market and now Barry.
"These exciting new sites combine to offer a fantastic opportunity to further serve and help grow the Welsh tech and digital ecosystem and we encourage any local founders and entrepreneurs to engage with us and access the support we offer, such as our free Startup Academy."
The firm is launching its next Startup Academy on 10 November 2022, a free 12-week programme designed to support pre-start and early-stage businesses in tech, digital and creative industries, with registration closing 21 October.
Meanwhile another co-working space firm, Town Square Spaces, has doubled its seven-figure turnover and won a number of new contracts across the UK.
In the past 12 months, the Caerphilly-based company has increased its headcount by 20 staff and won contracts in Neath, Devon, Rhyl, Herefordshire and Kent. It has opened new sites in Cardiff and London this year with three more set to open in London, Royal Tunbridge Wells, and Hereford.
Town Square also launched Cowork Local in Swansea, Denbighshire and the Vale of Glamorgan - backed by UK Government's Community Renewal Fund.
The UK Community Renewal Funded project supports local venues by opening their unused spaces for co-working, offering local meeting and work spaces to local businesses and entrepreneurs.
So far the project has seen 65 venues sign up across its three regions. Users of these spaces also gain TownSq membership which now stands at more than 700 members.
The business also has contracts to run support programmes across its regions including accelerators, startup clubs and business expos and through these they have supported over 2,500 enterprises.
Founder and COO Mandy Weston said: "We’ve had another year of growth, which has been a reflection of the desire for flexible working options, the need for small business support and the hard work of our team.
"We’ve opened our capital spaces in Cardiff and London, and are set to open another five this year, with three more in London, Royal Tunbridge Wells and Hereford. We’ll also be continuing to grow our Cowork Local Project, and working with Cardiff University and several other major partners in the new £50M Media Cymru project.
“The cost of living crisis and a looming recession will undoubtedly cause a lot of disruption, but we find that it’s during these tough times that some of the most innovative solutions are created.
“My co-founder Gareth and I have been growing coworking spaces and supporting small businesses for over a decade, and we feel the services we offer are going to be more crucial now than ever.
“We’ve a proven track record, which is why so many regions are choosing us to lead their projects and modern working ventures. We’re always looking for more partners, members and leaders to join us on this journey and embrace being a business for good.
“Either through choice or necessity, more people will be seeking ways to take charge of their incomes through starting their own ventures and coworking is a perfect environment to foster startups. The stage is set for a new generation of founders and innovators - and we are ready to support them.”
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