A major Nottingham employer says its £10 million investment in the city could become a "blueprint" for its sites around the world as it recruits hundreds more staff. Domestic & General (D&G), a worldwide insurer of appliances and gadgets ranging from washing machines to TVs, is aiming to have recruited around 500 new staff at its Nottingham office across the remainder of the year.
The company has a long history in Nottingham, having previously been based at a site in Talbot Street. That building was sold in April for £6.3 million, with the firm having now moved into a brand new base on Station Street.
D&G spent £10 million on this site as part of its new flexible working policy. The company previously said the base would be able to accommodate around 1,000 people, but employees are totally free to choose whether they want to work from home or in the office on any given day.
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Matthew Crummack, the CEO of the company, spoke about D&G's flexible working policy by saying: "What we wanted to do with Nottingham was to create a space which complemented that policy. We thought differently about how we run social events at the office, so people can come together not just for meetings, but also after work.
"It's really a different way of thinking about the office and the fact it's right next to the station, near coffee shops, bars and restaurants, gives it a real social feeling. When people are coming in, and they might not be doing it every day, they'll potentially go and spend time in the city afterwards.
"It gives it a very different feel from somewhere where you might go in for a few hours and then can't wait to go home." D&G, which was founded in 1912 and now boasts more than 16 million customers worldwide, has just announced its latest financial results.
They show the company continuing over 20 years of unbroken growth, with a 7% jump in revenue being recorded last year. Mr Crummack says the cost of living crisis is seeing people keep their appliances for longer, meaning faults are more likely to appear.
D&G offers protection for repairs and if this is not possible, the company will replace an appliance. A subscription service was introduced years ago, which now sees around five million customers paying a few pounds a month.
Mr Crummack added: "In this climate, more and more people don't have access to the many hundreds of pounds it costs to replace major domestic appliances, which are expensive these days and are getting more expensive. For millions of people who don't want to have that exposure, paying a few pounds a month to get that protection actually looks like good value."
The company is now taking around 10,000 calls a day in the UK, many of which are answered at its Midlands offices. As well as its new operations hub in Nottingham, officially opened in May, D&G has an office at Bedworth in the West Midlands.
News of the company's growth comes despite other adverse economic conditions, such as the war in Ukraine and rising inflation, having forced many other companies to make significant cutbacks. It was recently announced that all manufacturing of Boots products could be moving out of Nottingham as part of cost-cutting plans by the French firm Fareva.
Mr Crummack said the company's growth figures were not "crazy", with D&G instead having been committed to a sustainable level of growth over decades. He said: "There's a reasonable degree of pressure on me because we've been growing year on year now for 20 years. I'm definitely not going to be the guy that screws that up."
In terms of being able to commit to D&G's future in Nottingham, Mr Crummack said: "There are never any guarantees because things happen which are somewhat unpredictable. But as far as I can say, we are very committed to our investment both in the people and in that office and in fact, we're doubling down here because that's the right thing to do for the business."
Around 100 people a month are currently being recruited to work at the Nottingham office, equating to around 1,200 posts a year. But Mr Crummack says the people filling these roles are more "geographically diverse" as a result of D&G's flexible working policy.
He said: "Still a great many live in the East Midlands, but we're having to make sure we fill those virtual seats. Our desire is that we fill as many of those as we possibly can within a good distance of that office, but our number one responsibility is to make sure we have enough people that can pick up those 10,000 calls a day."
Describing D&G's previous Talbot Street office as a very "cramped" building containing up to 850 staff, Mr Crummack said it became hard to find people "who wanted a job" based on the old working model after the coronavirus pandemic. Having been commended by staff in a survey by the 'Great Place to Work' company, Mr Crummack says the new flexible working policy is paying dividends.
With D&G also enjoying a close working relationship with Nottingham City Council, Mr Crummack says the company should enjoy a future in the area for years to come. He added: "The working rhythm has changed almost beyond recognition from pre-Covid, and I think it's changed for the better.
"There are some people that have had enough of working from home. I think if I see the inside of my home again to work from, I'll scream, so I come into the office every day. It's not everybody who's like that, there are a lot of people who are very happy at home.
"What you're seeing in Nottingham feels a bit like a blueprint for what we'll do in different regions around the world. Because we've chosen to go fully flexible, it's doubly important we have a space that's attractive to be in. If we had no space, I would really be nervous about the impact on culture and the lack of touchpoint with our teams across the UK."
