REDS Group

REDS Group is a relatively young south west based company that has experienced exceptional growth in its first five years – but it has remained true to its roots.

Those roots stem partly from the Tavistock Enterprise Hub, which was one of two hot desk locations used by the business when it was founded in 2017 with just four engineers.

Today, REDS Group has expanded to a point where it now has five of its own offices nationwide, including its head office near Uffculme, and around 50 staff to offer a range of engineering and environmental services. This includes the maintenance, inspection and management of fuel and hazardous material storage facilities, emergency incident spill response, environmental risk assessments, as well as storage tank decommissioning, land remediation and civil construction work.

Despite branching out across the country, the Tavistock Enterprise Hub still plays an important role for Shane Stanley, Associate Director for Major Projects at REDS Group.

He says: “At that early stage of the business we didn’t need the overheads of offices and workshops. We just paid monthly for hot desking.

In five years we’ve more than doubled where we thought we were going to be in the marketplace. We’re now one of the top leaders of our industry, and it all started from work hubs like Tavistock.

My key office is working from the Tavistock Enterprise Hub. It’s just a few miles from home but it’s quite central to all of the south west locations I tend to deal with.

It’s very flexible, I can come and go in the office whenever I please and my work life balance is massively increased by working from the hub. I have more time with my family and more time to focus on work without the added stress of driving to get to work.

I still do a lot of travelling and visit all of our offices all over the country but it’s great to know that everything I need to do, apart from site visits, I can do from the hub in Tavistock.”

The Tavistock Enterprise Hub, which is a member of the Devon Work Hubs network, celebrated its 10th anniversary in December. It provides hot desks, meeting rooms and affordable office space on flexible lease terms, hosting a variety of businesses.

Rhiannon Spurgeon, Tavistock Enterprise Hub Manager, says: “Part of what The Hub is about is bridging the gap between working at your kitchen table or spare room and taking on a five-year commercial lease because that gap is huge. The hub allows you to try working outside the home without the huge commitment, so it allows you to have an office without having to wrangle with broadband or worrying about your own furniture.

We could not be more delighted by the REDS Group success story. When Shane was first here using a hot desk, his infectious enthusiasm was also hugely beneficial for other small business owners starting out.

Setting up a new business is tough, but when you have somebody else doing it on the next desk, it gets easier. Watching our businesses flourish is what keeps us going through the more challenging times.

The variety of businesses that have been here over the years has been phenomenal and a lot of them have ended up working on projects together, largely due to the brainstorming that happens in the kitchen area! There’s a real sense of community here and there are a lot of skills in the building.”