Fareham: 300 jobs created as Specsavers relocates

Specsavers, the World’s largest privately owned opticians, will create around 300 jobs for Hampshire as it prepares to set up a hub for its worldwide expansion at the Solent Business Park at Fareham.

Specsavers has taken a prestigious new building, Forum 6, at Solent Business Park, relocating existing staff from Eastleigh and creating 300 new jobs at the 38,000 sq ft building.

The Forum was developed and is owned by PRUPIM, a leading global real estate investment manager. The site provides possibly the best quality office environment ever delivered speculatively to the M27 office market, according to Nik Cox of marketing agents King Sturge.

“Forum 6 is a stunning contemporary statement building with the highest specification, benefiting from its position in a self-contained office campus,” Mr Cox said. “The scheme is designed with all the buildings laid out around a central lake and features superb landscaping, which makes it a fantastic environment to work in. Staff based at the Forum also benefit from a range of local amenities within walking distance, including the Whiteley Village Shopping Outlet.”

Specsavers’ Director of Property Services, Hugo Lord, said: “This is a property acquisition to meet the growing demands of the business, not only in the UK, but internationally. The building is going to offer us the space to expand our IT facility, and create additional space to meet the growing demands of the business as we continue to expand our operations around the world.

“Forum 6 met all expectations because it is a modern, self-contained, stand alone building which we could have sole occupancy of and brand as Specsavers. It is a building of great quality and has an excellent infrastructure and services. We are also looking to support public transport services.”

Acting for Specsavers was Nottingham firm of surveyors, heb, which has managed other property deals for the firm in recent months.

Jonathan Bishop of heb said: “We have a long relationship with Specsavers and work closely with them to provide a streamlined site acquisition plan. It has been a really satisfactory deal as it is good news for Hampshire – and it is good news for people who live and work in the area. It has been a really straight forward, smooth transaction.”

King Sturge and Knight Frank acted jointly for PRUPIM on this deal.