Happy Birthday to our Warwick Support Centre!
This article will take approximately 3 minutes to read
Published 1 Feb 2021 in Colleagues
Did you know it was 10 years ago today that our Warwick Support Centre was first opened to our colleagues? Happy birthday Warwick!🎈
Even though we cannot celebrate in the way we wanted to with all our fantastic colleagues, today we want to share a trip down memory lane on what was a landmark achievement in our Society history.
Our History
The Midcounties Co-operative, which was formed in 2005 due to a merger between two major consumer co-operatives, Oxford, Swindon & Gloucester, and the West Midlands helping to create a stronger, more effective society. At the time, we had two support centres based in Walsall and Oxford, so as part of bringing together both of the offices into one place, we decided to make the move to the centrally located Warwick in 2010. The new Warwick Support Centre was then officially opened on 1st February 2011.
When did the move to Warwick begin?
Agreed in January 2010, work started in May of that year including the standard project management to be completed before the moving in date.
Left to right – The front of the building & Right-hand side of the building during construction
Finance, building work, interior design and not forgetting our colleagues, were all consulted before the sign off was approved for the new support centre to be completed.
During construction from the front of the building
Moving into the new offices from the existing Oxford and Walsall offices started in January 2011 with the official launch on 1st February 2011. The first to make the move was the Finance teams and this was closely followed by PSG (Personnel Service Group) in February 2011.
The new office based in Warwick Technology Park named Co-operative House
Blast from the past!
We have been able to dig out a nostalgic TeamTalk magazine which featured the launch in February 2011, take a look at the pictures, you may recognise a few familiar faces!
A few facts about the launch in 2011 - Did you know?
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Co-operative House in Warwick uses energy-efficient lighting, a solar shading system and solar panels to reduce our carbon emissions. This will reduce our annual CO2 consumption by over 100 tonnes.
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Everything from the colour scheme to the furniture was selected by support centre Colleague Council reps.
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A new ‘Sunray’ system will replace desktop computers at the office, where any colleague can access their desktop by inserting a card into a small box on their desk, thus removing the bulky tower units most computers have and allowing information to be stored in a central, backed-up location. (These have now replaced with more modern servers!)
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The carpet in the Hatherton Road board room is a 19th-century co-operative heritage piece created by the Kidderminster Weavers and has been transferred, along with the furniture from Oxford’s board room, to the new board room.
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In the entrance, atrium hangs a specially commissioned piece of art bearing a wheatsheaf symbol, often used by the co-operative movement to represent the idea that one ear of wheat cannot stand up on its own, but with others, in a wheatsheaf, it stands strong.
