CASE STUDY HERMES UK
SIGNED, SEALED,
DELIVERED
There is every chance that your first
experience of Hermes UK has been
at your front door. The independent
courier delivers over 360 million parcels
each year for some of the UK’s largest
online retailers, including Next Directory,
QVC, JD Williams and Debenhams. Behind
this delivery service is a network of sites,
including a purpose-built, state-of-theart
automated parcel distribution hub in
Rugby, which at 25,100 sq m is the biggest
of its kind in the UK.
There are over 100 properties in the
Hermes estate, which spans from Dundee
to Bridgwater in Somerset. The company’s
multisite head o ice estate is split across four
buildings in Leeds, comprising a head o ice,
a call centre and a brand-new innovative
technology hub.
The tech hub is home to the firm’s
Innovation Lab, and is the creative base for
24 AUGUST 2019
its senior developers to work on a range of
innovative delivery services and solutions.
Finding highly skilled developers in a
competitive market is always a challenge, so
it was crucial that the new tech hub, which
would house around 50 full-time members of
sta and an additional 20 hot-desk spaces,
o ered something extra.
Wayne Young, Facilities Manager at
Hermes, explains: “We were
looking for an o ice that could
encourage some innovative
people to join our business,
which allowed for us to develop
a strong presence in central
Leeds, and was conveniently
located near the train station
so our employees could travel
in by public transport and have
greater proximity to shops and
so on. Wayne Young
“It needed to be a space that was
‘Instagramable’, which worked functionally
as an o ice but could be opened up into
a bigger social space for Ted-type talks.
Overall, we wanted a place where people
could enjoy the benefit of working but could
also enjoy the social environment as well. We
only needed six to seven thousand square
feet, but we did want our own outside space.
We ended up visiting around 30 properties
in Leeds, and this one had the greatest
potential as it includes an outdoor terrace
with amazing views across the centre of
Leeds.”
INNOVATIVE DESIGN
The new tech hub started life as a traditional
o ice space, but the design had to attract a
technically creative team into the Hermes
culture while o ering a unique experience
for all visitors. According to Young, the initial
brief included 10 key criteria.
Innovative. The design had to utilise
moving walls featuring custom joinery, with
audiovisual (AV) wall and connectivity inside
and out.
The design brief for courier company Hermes’ new tech hub in
Leeds was to create something ƈcool and a little bit diff erent’.
Sara Bean visited to see how far the project has succeeded