Following our run of good news stories, EMS are very pleased to announce that we have now officially moved into our new office premises located in the heart of Hereford. EMS will now be trading from The Old Surgery, 22a King Street, Hereford, HR4 9DA.
The building, which is stone’s throw from Hereford Cathedral, has been used as a doctors’ surgery for over 40 years. Whilst the existing space had a huge amount of potential it did require significant reconfiguration and modernisation to transform the space into a modern office building suitable for our business needs and staff. After several weeks of building work, it is now ready for us to move into.
22a King Street provides much required extra space for EMS, which has steadily grown year by year since 2003. The business which provides a range of environmental consultancy services including asbestos surveys and consultancy, geotechnical and geo-environmental investigations and legionella and water safety services.
As previously announced, EMS have recently added air testing, monitoring and laboratory services to our repertoire of environmental consultancy services through the acquisition of Cardiff based consultancy NGA associates in August 2020. The new office premises will provide a designated space for this division to allow EMS to set up a Hereford based asbestos testing laboratory and provide these services inhouse. The acquisition of NG Associates and the move to larger premises has already allowed EMS to recruit two new members of staff in Hereford and another part-time member of staff in Cardiff. It is envisaged that the opening of the laboratory in Hereford will create at least one other additional job opportunity in the near future.
Sister company EMS Water was formed in 2018. EMS Water provides comprehensive water safety and management services including Legionella risk assessments, compliance, monitoring and training services and has doubled in size year on year. The new office allows for a designated office space for EMS Water, who have also taken on two new fulltime members of staff during 2020 in response to continuing increase in workload and gained several UK based Legionella contracts.
EMS successfully applied and secured a grant of just over £22,000 from the European Regional Development fund through Herefordshire Council’s MBIG (Marches Building Investment Grant) which contributed towards the development costs to transform the building into a contemporary office space.
EMS used local main contractors, Thackway and Cadwallader after they successfully won the tender process alongside other local trades including Network Data Services, Hereford Carpets and Edko’s Painters, to complete the works.
With the ongoing uncertainty of this year due to Covid-19 restrictions, EMS have used the opportunity to strengthen and future proof the business, with expansion of services directly providing new jobs within our community.
We hope that alongside our new office base, our fuller range of environmental consultancy services will continue to better serve our existing long standing and high profile client list throughout the UK and allow us to appeal to new clients alike, as well as offer us the opportunity to tender for larger public sector contracts than we have been able to previously.
In a year where uncertainty has been the overriding feature, we are proud to share our plans for future growth and continue to plan to be business for now and into the future. Our staff are looking forward to being a part of the business community within Hereford and supporting the fantastic range of local and independent retailers we have in our city.
We also hope to invite our clients to see us in our new office as soon as we are able to for a proper celebration!