Portsmouth: New café on menu at Portsmouth Technopole

A serviced business centre in Portsmouth has unveiled a new cafe and three meeting rooms following a £100,000 investment.

Portsmouth Technopole, the five-storey landmark building next to the M275 city gateway, has already seen usage of the ground floor rooms soar by a third compared to what was previously available.

Peter Outen, the centre manager, said: "We listened to our customers, who suggested that a contemporary cafe and new meeting rooms, with advanced audio-visual facilities and connectivity, would be well utilised by them and their own customers and suppliers.

"We've invested £100,000 in enhancing the service offering here at the Technopole and it is already paying off, with meeting rooms usage already up by 34% in just a few weeks."

The meeting rooms, break-out areas and cafe have been installed by fit-out company Hampshire Interiors.

Crumbs, which runs a coffee shop in nearby Kingston Crescent, was awarded a contract to run the Technopole cafe. The cafe and hired meeting rooms are available to external companies.

There are 37 registered firms, with nearly 200 people employed between them, at 20,000 sq ft Technopole. An office package includes telephone answering and message services, reception services, mail handling, use of meeting and conference rooms and access to networking events, workshops and business support.

Customers include Bladez Toyz Plc, which recently took a third office due to product demand from high street retailers. Bladez is a market-leading brand of innovative radio-controlled gadgets and toys, employing 15 people locally. Another innovative company at the Technopole is SupaPowa, which provides wireless charging solutions for smartphones.

Portsmouth Technopole is run by Oxford Innovation, which operates 20 similar serviced centres across the country.