Bourn to be wild about Cambridge Design Partnership’s new 2022 premises
Cambridge Design Partnership (CDP) is set to complete its move to its new 7,500 square metres home in Bourn next year.
Unveiling the new Bourn Quarter premises, which includes labs, workshops, a manufacturing facility and a 200-seat auditorium, CDP’s founding partner Mike Beadman called it “a great marker of our success”.
Founded in 1996, CDP is an end-to-end innovation partner, creating breakthrough products and technologies for leading companies and brands in the consumer, healthcare and industrial markets.
“This is a great marker of our success and especially pleasing as 2021 is CDP’s 25th anniversary year,” said Mr Beadman. “In just the last 12 months, we’ve served more clients than ever before and grown our headcount by over 50 per cent.
“Our new headquarters will be more than twice the size of our current base, with a range of product and technology development facilities to compare with any in the world.”
Construction of the new facility, which has been developed by Sutton-based Aitchison Developments, began in May. CDP will be the anchor tenant within the 25-acre redevelopment after planning permission to start the net-zero-carbon-ready industrial development was secured from South Cambridgeshire District Council by Savills Investment Management.
Among the new facilities will be a world-class consumer research facility for consumer and healthcare insights research and innovation workshops. This will be equipped with observation suites and one-way mirrors for physical focus groups and consumer trials and networked to enable global client participation. CDP is also ramping up its short-run manufacture capability with a large manufacturing facility on the site.
Working in close collaboration with clients has been a core value from the earliest days of CDP, which became 100 per cent employee-owned in 2018.
The new building will “maximize creative collaboration while maintaining the highest standards of client confidentiality”. The goal is a fundamentally interactive workspace allowing scientific labs and workshops to be connected to desk areas. There is a spacious central atrium with a fully-catered kitchen, as well as a breakout space. The 200-seat auditorium will be used for company events, conferences, and creative workshops.
“We’re committed to integrating CDP into the wider Cambridge cluster and welcoming clients and peers into our new headquarters,” said Mr Beadman. “The space will ensure we give our clients excellent service in the very best, cutting-edge facilities and will also offer our employee owners an environment in which they can thrive. Among the many reasons for CDP’s impressive expansion is the fact that the team is closely involved in the company’s future.”
April 2021 saw CDP launch the biggest recruitment drive in the company’s history.
“The collaborative and creative possibilities of our new headquarters make this an excellent time to be an employee owner at CDP,” noted Mr Beadman.
The company, which has been based in Toft since 1996, recently opened its new US R&D centre in Raleigh, North Carolina.
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