Vygon move to iconic building  

Vygon celebrated its move to a new home in one of Swindon most iconic buildings with an event for local businesses and civic dignitaries. The newly named Pierre Simonet Building dominates the view from the A419 north of Swindon and is famous for its award-winning industrial glass and steel architecture and the long metal tube that runs the length of the property at Groundwell.

The building was opened by the Queen in 1998. Formerly the home of manufacturing in the UK for Motorola, it also starred in the James Bond film The World is not Enough as a Turkish oil platform.

For Vygon the move comes a year before the company celebrates its 50th anniversary and it provides an ideal setting for its growth and development. The company invested £15milion in buying the land, building and refurbishment costs and not only does the new UK headquarters provide the company with much-needed warehousing and state-of-the-art offices it will also become the international training centre for Vygon hosting delegates from all over the world.

The process to relocate started three years ago explained Les Davies Managing Director of Vygon in the UK. We knew we needed more room to expand and we wanted to plan ahead for the next 15 to 20 years. We’d built a great team in Cirencester so we didn’t want to move far but we were operating on three sites and it just wasn’t practical. The Pierre Simonet Building gives us all we need and more.””