Quality of Life Prompts Job Creation at Howbery Business Park

Quality of life has prompted the relocation of a Korean lighting company’s global design office from London to the leafy environs of Howbery Business Park, a relocation which brings with it job creation for creative individuals in the region.

The company, KKDC Design House, the global product design and marketing arm of KKDC, an international architectural lighting manufacturer specialising in LED, has taken The Lodge, a 863 sq. ft. recently renovated site at the business park. Settled in The Lodge for only three weeks the company is already recruiting for two roles, Junior Technical Support and a Graphic Artworker and Marketing officer.

The decision to move was led by the UK senior management team who, despite needing to expand their office base, were reticent to do so in London. The team recognized that a move presented an opportunity to look further afield and benefit from quality of life too. Tim Young, Head of Design, explains:

“The advancement of remote working technologies means physical location plays less of a role in staying competitive and enables us to communicate effectively across continents. As the Global creative arm of an international manufacturer KKDC, unlike a sales office we are not solely reliant on being located in the capital, providing we still have reasonable access to London when required and close proximity to Heathrow.

“With these factors in mind and growing families, the Global Technical Manager Tom Hall, and myself decided to explore options outside the capital, but with no desire to end up on an industrial type office park thought our options might be limited. After we identified Oxford and surrounding area as the place to be, we were fortunate to discover Howbery Business Park from some active online research, and even more fortunately, discovered that The Lodge was soon to be available. It has all been so easy, it’s as if it was meant to be!

“While the move has been relatively fluid, with KKDC at the forefront of the LED sector with a network of sales offices across the world working on prestigious international projects, there is now a pressing need for KKDC Design House to recruit.

“Although we are new to the area we are confident that we will be able to find the right people who can join our success story.”

Young continues: “The Lodge is the perfect base for us and we look forward to developing and growing the KKDC Design House team from here. The business park’s management team has been second to none helping us with the move and supporting us in these first few weeks. While recruitment is our primary aim, in the near future we hope to utilise our unique ‘Lodge’ office space and garden to showcase various KKDC Lighting products and bespoke exhibition pieces.”

Donna Bowles of the Howbery Business Park Estates team, said: “We are absolutely delighted to welcome KKDC Design House to Howbery Business Park and to hear that already the company’s move has generated local job opportunities. We look forward to supporting the growing team at The Lodge and to the light installation!”