Dual purpose property Converting a barn into holiday accommodation and a film studio is a clever move. Mary finds out more
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TAMFORD AND THE surrounding area is home to a large number of creative people, many of whom have gone on to launch their own businesses, be it magazines, creative agencies, design studios and many more. This area attracts so many like-minded individuals because, historically, many of us would have worked for EMAP, once one of the largest publishing companies in the country. One such couple who did this is Martin and Julie Dupree who launched their business in 2001. Initially a creative agency it has now grown into a brand development agency with clients all over the world; Dupree International. The company helps companies grow once they have initially, organically reached a growth ceiling and need that extra push to expand. In 20 years of business they have helped many businesses move their brand forward ‘and are very proud that we have never had a failure,’ says Commercial Director, Julie Dupree, who has a long professional history of business development and marketing. Some of the brands they have worked with are country sports clothing Seeland and Harkila, American brand Streamlight and RAGT which is a worldwide agricultural seed producer, to name a few with brands based all over the world. The business which employs 11 people is now based in Castle Bytham run from a converted barn next to their house. As well as
this barn, there are more buildings and in 2019 Julie decided it was time to convert another one of them. nother o our clients is Teflon who ost people will have heard of,’ says Julie. ‘As well as managing the brand we also run an annual cookery competition for them, the ICG (Inspiring Culinary Generations) which is for young chefs. Dupree manages the whole process and so need to hire kitchen space. We used to hire a commercial kitchen in London but this cost us £4,000 a day which was a prohibitive price and we did not necessarily need to be in London anyway. We needed a ‘super duper kitchen’ as well as cameras and lighting. As we have other culinary clients as well I decided we would build our own. ‘We had a redundant barn that could be converted so I got permission and work started in October 2019. As well as a kitchen and studio, as we had so much space we decided to add accommodation as well. This meant that we would be able to produce extra revenue by not only having commercial studio space or l ing but we could also have holiday acco odation too nd to make even more use of the space I designed the downstairs bedroom to be able to be used as a board room/meeting room as well so that can be hired just for a couple of hours if needed.’ Julie is certainly inventive. And her design skills means they have
'As well as The Studio, in the other half of the converted barn is a much larger kitchen with bi-folding doors leading out on to a pretty walled garden. ' 26 March 2022 / theactivemag.com
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