A wellbeing company offering services ranging from blood tests to boxing has become the latest arrival at a business park which has morphed from a military garage into a modern complex supporting more than 200 jobs.
The Livewell Syndicate has relocated from offices and a training suite in Hull city centre to take three units at Base, the former Chamberlain Business Park which has undergone a transformation since being bought by Allenby Commercial three years ago.
CJ Turrian, who launched The Livewell Syndicate with partner Dan Snow in 2019, said their clients have followed them from the previous city centre location to the new site which, as serviced accommodation, enables them to concentrate on their business.
Georgia Allenby, Design and Marketing Director at Allenby Commercial, said work is under way now to create more space at the site in the face of rising demand in a range of business sectors.
CJ and Dan are both University of Hull graduates and met during their teaching careers.
CJ is from Switzerland and speaks more than 10 languages and dialects. After leaving university she went travelling and branched into Bollywood and beauty pageants before completing her teacher training qualifications.
Dan is Hull born and bred and specialises in Sport Science. He progressed through St Paul’s Boxing Academy in Hull and provided coaching in schools, young offender institutions, community groups, colleges and the special educational needs sector.
As The Livewell Syndicate they offer different types of coaching models and are in demand from business people seeking support themselves or for their organisation with issues around physical and mental health and wellbeing.
Dan said: “I experienced workplace wellbeing issues myself and lost my hair, and parts of my beard and eyelashes. I realised the support people needed wasn’t there and we identified a business opportunity.”
“We ask the questions that a lot of people are afraid of asking. We find out where employees need more support, explore the problems employees are facing in the workplace and offer feedback that links employee wellbeing with overall business performance.”
CJ is aware of the potential to use her language skills and international contacts to enable The Livewell Syndicate to deliver its services worldwide.
She said: “It’s very encouraging that our clients have followed us here from our old premises in the city centre, and we’ve also grown our corporate customer base since we moved. They tend to come in for one service and end up improving themselves in a more holistic way”.
“We are also working further afield. We have done a few broadcasts into India and we are also looking into opportunities in other countries. We are still working with the university to help us better understand the eastern Asian market and the Middle East”.
“The idea is to create an offering that can function as remotely as possible and we can do that from here. Speaking different languages breaks down cultural barriers and helps us to truly connect with people”.
“It also helps being in our new premises. It’s modern and open and a space for everybody. It’s a community where everybody is friendly and curious about what they are doing and about how we can all work together.”
Georgia added: “We have redeveloped around 70 per cent of the site and we are actively on site working on the rest. It’s home to around 60 businesses employing more than 200 people between them, we have some exciting new tenants coming in and we are creating more space for light industrial, workshops, storage and offices.
“The site is 98 per cent occupied and demand is strong, which wasn’t the case when we took on the site. People have responded to the improvements and the higher standard of accommodation which includes an onsite café, kitchens, modern new bathrooms, gym facilities, meeting rooms and – crucially – plenty of free parking!”