CASE STUDY: Kensa - Specialist support for funding and skills

31st August 2022

Kensa Creative’s search for a new home culminated in the firm building bespoke offices from scratch thanks to the Telford Land Dea. 

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Providing a business-friendly environment that enables companies to thrive and grow is a key priority for Telford & Wrekin Council and its partners.

Kensa Creative’s journey over the last decade demonstrates how that goal is very much a reality on the ground.

The design and marketing agency now has a wide range of clients, from start-ups to multinational corporations. But key to its success has been the ability to find suitable premises and support to nurture its development.

The company started life in a small office at the e-Innovation Centre (EIC) within the University of Wolverhampton’s campus in Telford. Over the next five years it moved into a bigger space at the EIC until eventually the firm had outgrown its base.

Scott Clarke, Kensa’s managing director and founder, picks up the story.

‘I’m from Telford and live here and our staff are scattered all around the surrounding area so we didn’t want to move somewhere else. We started looking at options but there wasn’t a lot available that suited us.’

It was then that biT Group, a design and project management consultancy that’s owned by the council, suggested Kensa build its own offices. A plot was identified at Hortonwood West, a brownfield site brought forward via the Telford Land Deal.

‘Building our own office really wasn’t the plan at all because we didn’t think it would be possible,’ says Scott. ‘The council’s business support team, Invest Telford, and biT Group made that space for us and made it work for our budget.’

The 7,500 sq ft two-storey office block in a tree-lined setting next to a stream and meadow has space for up to 40 people. Kensa currently uses the first floor and lets out the offices below, creating an income while allowing the option of further space as the company grows.

Invest Telford also provided a grant to install a ground source heat pump through its business growth programme and Kensa recently added solar panels to the roof and EV charging points in the car park.

‘It’s a win-win,’ Scott explains. ‘It helps us to be greener and brings our bills down.

‘The support we have had from the local authority has enabled us to push further than we would have done. It’s encouraged us to grow and supported us to do that.

He adds: ‘We’re now future-proofed. I don’t know how we could have done that elsewhere. Telford is a great place for us to grow.’