9 minute read
Area Focus
Opportunity and growth in Dacorum
Dacorum embraces the new town of Hemel Hempstead, the historic market towns of Berkhamsted and Tring as well as picturesque villages and rural locations.
Situated just north
of London, the area is easy to access by road, rail and by air, which allows for excellent infrastructure for work opportunities.
There is a wealth of arts, culture, museums, and fascinating attractions such as historic Berkhamsted Castle, Tring Natural History Museum and Hemel snow centre, Chiltern Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, waiting to be discovered.
The area offers a multitude of options for eating out from modern restaurants, cafes and pubs offering a variety of cuisines and styles from around the world.
Hemel Hempstead is perfectly placed on the edge of London within around a 30-minute drive or train ride of the capital, benefiting from the road links of the M1, M25 and A41, two mainline rail stations along with easy access to five airports. Hemel Hempstead is a place of significant businesses set within beautiful countryside including the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The town and area offer a fantastic and great value quality of life with attractions for all the family, some great places to live, a variety of employment opportunities, all within an environment to envy, a compelling urban green experience.
The Maylands Business Park is home to over 650 companies, employing over 20,000 people and there are plans to expand further as part of the Herts Innovation Quarter (Herts IQ) Enterprise Zone. Dacorum Borough Council also believes that exporting is essential to building the UK and local economies, securing new jobs, and creating new opportunities. In partnership with the Hertfordshire Chamber of Commerce, the council launched a 12-month project of funded international business support to identify and work with 20 Dacorumbased companies that are interested in substantially expanding into new markets. Hemel Hempstead is a place of opportunity and growth. The Hemel Garden Communities programme aims to create up to 11,000 homes and 10,000 jobs to the north and east of Hemel Hempstead by 2050. The whole of Hemel will be transformed to become a more sustainable, inclusive and innovative town. Safety, biodiversity and healthy lifestyles will be the priorities, as well as responding to the challenges of the climate.
Dacorum Borough Council is also developing the Hemel Place and Town Centre Strategies, which will tie together the wide range of ambitious projects happening in Hemel. The council launched the Hemel Place Board in November 2021 bringing together external partners and senior stakeholders including Government Departments, the NHS, Herts CC, West Herts College, Voluntary and Community organisations and major local businesses to guide and oversee the new strategies and co-ordinate actions.
Hemel Hempstead, having been one of the first New Towns, it is reinventing itself for the 21st century with a series of vibrant new Garden Communities bringing housing and employment, transformation of the urban centre into a place for living, leisure and work, the potential repurposing of development areas near to the town accompanied by a cultural renaissance. The emphasis will be on animating and activating the place with a focus on people and the use of space not just buildings.
To find out more about the Hemel Garden Communities and Hemel Place projects, visit www.hemelgardencommunities.co.uk and www.thinkhemel.com
Infusion office
A brighter tomorrow
At Infusion Group, we want every business leader to have all the tools they need to make their business truly brilliant. Our range of solutions improve planning, process, and performance, helping our clients to become smarter, more profitable businesses today and setting them up for a brighter tomorrow. The Business Owners we work with are seeking to grow their business, step away from the day to day, or exit, so we help them build a business that isn’t solely reliant on them.
Our founder lives in the market town of Tring, so a short drive from an office was a ‘must have’. We found the fabulous barn at Orchard House in Gaddesden Row and the rest is history. Most of our clients are based in South-East of England, including Dacorum and surrounding areas.
There are so many benefits to being based in Dacorum and it’s something our colleagues, clients and wider community really appreciate. Gone are the long commutes in and out of the city we had for many years; now we welcome peace and quiet, beautiful views, fresh air, and dog walks at lunch time. Most importantly, it’s a fantastic environment for learning where our clients can step away from the hustle and bustle of the day to day and focus ON their business rather than IN it - one has even called us the Champneys of the business world!
Dacorum is a wonderful place to be, one we’re proud to call home.
For information visit www.infusion-group.co.uk
Healthcare without the hassle
OSD Healthcare, a family-run business was set up just off Boundary Way in Hemel Hempstead in 2016. Since then, the clear focus has been on providing accessible, affordable and stress-free private healthcare for the Dacorum community - and further afield. OSD Healthcare is ideally placed to reach patients from further afield as well as those living close by.
The company’s choice of the Dacorum borough as home is in large part due to the founders being local - the links were already well established. But another benefit for basing operations here were the ideal road connections. The M1, M25 and A41 are all very close.
CEO Ray Guirguis, who joined the firm in 2020, points out that the community focused OSD Healthcare proposition has been well received. “The saying we have here is ‘it’s beyond healthcare’. We are ideally located and easy to get to with free parking. Our patients are put at ease from the start – there is a seamless pathway, and we ensure our patients get the most out of their appointments”.
He adds: “The idea is to offer a premium level of healthcare in the local area at an affordable cost.”
Ray outlines how the business has evolved over the years and engaged with the local community. “We actually rebranded as OSD Healthcare about three years ago – and some locals still refer to us as One Stop Doctors. Initially we provided primary care and dental services but have expanded significantly since then.”
Ray took up the reins as CEO, in March 2020 just as the Covid pandemic was beginning to grip the country. Construction work had already started on OSD’s new day care surgical facilities. While the hospital space was not operational in time to help with the fight against the pandemic, OSD Healthcare was one of the first able to offer Covid testing locally at its primary care centre.
Post-Covid, OSD Healthcare’s surgical facility is now up and running. And its’ strong partnership with the NHS has continued, offering support when it is needed. This has meant helping deal with the backlog of appointments due to the pandemic.
“For instance, we have been able to help local NHS trusts by providing mammography screening services,” Ray explains.
Quanta The Gatsby 2021
Delivering recruitment solutions
Founded in 1992, Quanta is a specialist recruitment consultancy delivering recruitment solutions to leading organisations worldwide within the Life Science, Renewable Energy, Data Centre & IT industries. Their mission is “to be the de facto recruitment partner to their clients and candidates”. Quanta is a family run business based in the bustling, historic market town of Berkhamsted on the western edge of Hertfordshire, named the best place to live in Southeast England, 2018 by The Sunday Times.
A key benefit of being situated in the Dacorum area is that they are just a mere 30 minutes on the train from Euston and near the M1 and M25 motorway. Berkhamsted has the advantage of being a stone’s throw from London while still maintaining the kind of charm you can only find in such an English town. This, they feel, is why they have people that work for them coming from a 40-mile radius, ranging from Bicester, Loughton and Reading, and this supports their efforts in attracting a diverse workforce to come and work at their offices.
The Quanta team enjoys taking advantage of the plethora of local bars, pubs and restaurants in the area. More importantly, Quanta proudly supports four local charities by holding regular fund-raising events. The charities they support include DENs Dacorum, The Pepper Foundation, The Swan Youth Project, and Thomley.
Dacorum has an exciting cluster of fastgrowing tech companies, driving innovation across both consumer and business-tobusiness markets. The complex chips powering this innovation are built from semiconductors – an indispensable foundation for modern technologies. From smartphones and PCs to cars and data centres, the demand for these products has accelerated, pushing manufacturers to build better, more efficient chips.
“Countless tech products begin their life in Kings Langley, with Imagination’s marketleading semiconductor IP powering over 11bn devices globally. We recognise the true value of the engineering talent that made this possible, and we’re excited to have grown our company to 900 people in just the last 12 months – with our sights set on finding an additional 150 engineers, to further expand our home base here in Hertfordshire,” says David Harold, CMO at Imagination.
In Imagination’s recent industry report, the company has devised a strategy for the UK to address the ongoing challenges in the semiconductor sector. Investing in research and development is a key pillar for this approach, alongside championing the UK’s strengths in IP design and talent. Imagination’s specialist division for R&D, IMG Labs, helps develop resources at a local level for a global impact.
In addition to enabling a strong pool of tech talent in the area, Imagination is committed to strengthen the local community. Its CSR committee coordinates key activities in this space and manages ongoing support for Hertfordshire-based charities such as DENS and The Akshaya Patra Foundation. Dacorum is a strong area for technological development and Imagination remains focused on enabling this progress for the district on all levels.
