Milk laps up Hello Manchester offer

Digital media agency Milk has taken an office at Bruntwood's 111 Piccadilly under the publicly backed Hello Manchester soft-landing programme for inward investors.

The Hello Manchester scheme offers newcomers to the city region free desk space for the first 12 months of their relocation to the area. The scheme was launched by Midas, the inward investment agency for the city region, the North West Development Agency and a selection of landlords including Orega, Avanta, Bruntwood and Manchester Science Park. This is the first deal publicised under the scheme.

Milk has offices in London and Barcelona and plans to recruit 15 staff in Manchester from where it will launch an online recruitment product called Recsite later this year.

Oliver Gibbs, sales and marketing director for Milk, said the availability of Hello Manchester was one of the key reasons for Milk selecting the city ahead of Cape Town, South Africa.

He said: "We were attracted to Manchester because the Hello Manchester offering made our search for suitable office space that much easier but also because the city has a booming creative, digital and media sector and competitive office and labour costs."

Midas played a key role in bringing Milk to Manchester and is working with the agency on the recruitment of its staff, networking and usability testing for the new e-recruitment product.

Gibbs added: "Midas showed an understanding of our business needs in relocating. The team facilitated excellent office space in a great location and helped to connect our business to Manchester networks."

Colin Sinclair, chief executive of Midas and shortly to join Bruntwood, said: "We were delighted to bring Milk to Manchester as the latest addition to the city region's thriving creative, digital and media sector.

"The fact that we were able to offer them the Hello Manchester soft landings service highlights the potential it has to bring significant economic benefits to Manchester city region."