CAMPING GEAR COMPANY OLPRO LAUNCHES DESIGN COLLABORATION WITH WORCESTER UNI

Property disruptor aims to go national with buyer-pays-fees model

A Worcester business that has disrupted the traditional estate agent model is setting its sights on national expansion with demand for its unique offer continuing to grow.

FreeAgent247.com, which was the brainchild of industry experts Daniel Lewis and Gerard Smith, provides homeowners with a “free” way of selling their homes by reversing the fees so they are paid for by the buyer.

Last November, camping equipment company Olpro kickstarted a fourmonth collaboration with university students who are using their design expertise to develop eye-catching visual content for Olpro ’s sustainability initiatives: the company’s tree planting initiative and ‘Loan & Go’ rental service.

Last year Olpro pledged to plant one tree for every tent and awning sold, and this has already led to the planting of more than 3,500 trees around the world. ‘Loan & Go’ was introduced as a rental service that allows people to go camping once before deciding whether they want to purchase their product and commit to camping longer term. The company introduced the scheme after seeing the huge number of tents that festival goers were leaving behind for disposal at landfills.

Daniel Walton, founder of Olpro, said: “We’re delighted to be working in collaboration with the University of Worcester’s Graphic Design students. We’re really pleased that we can give local students an opportunity to gain some valuable business experience and to collaborate in making some eye-catching content that will go towards promoting some fantastic sustainability initiatives.”

The approach has proved successful in Worcestershire, with the company regularly handling more than 100 different properties, from riverside lodges and city centre apartments to family homes and country retreats.

Daniel said: “Reversing the fees so that the buyer picks up our charges makes complete sense for the seller. It takes away a big additional cost, whether you are selling a two-bed starter home or a luxury rural property. We are now seeing a steady stream of clients asking us to sell £1 million plus properties.”

IONOS data centre achieves completion at Worcester Six

Property developer Stoford has completed its construction of an energy-efficient data centre at Worcester Six Business Park for IONOS, one of Europe’s largest datahosting companies.

The nearly 44,000 sq ft unit for the data hosting company, and Fasthosts – its subsidiary UK brand, includes solar photovoltaic panels that cover the entire roof and Tata Steel’s Confidex Sustain wall and roof cladding, which creates a carbonneutral building envelope.

Gerard Ludlow, Director at Stoford, said: “We’ve made superb progress on this data centre for IONOS and are proud to have delivered Wychavon’s first data centre for IONOS. As Worcester Business Park continues to take shape, it is attracting

global names to the region.”

When complete, Worcester Six will provide around 1.5m sq ft of employment space. So far more than 700,000 sq ft of space has been delivered or committed across the scheme, with tenants including Kimal, Kohler Mira, Spire Healthcare, Zwickroell, Marmon Foodservice and Siemens energy business Materials Solutions.