The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) has moved into a new building - finally bringing together the different sector boards for the first time.
The newly constructed building at the National Agriculture Centre at Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire, is leased from LaSalle Investment Management and hasn't cost levy payers any money.
LaSalle manages Stoneleigh Park, and the AHDB HQ is the first major new building to be constructed on the site in a decade.
AHDB was controversially created in 2008, bringing together the six sector bodies, including the Horticultural Development Company and Potato Council, from their separate sites around the country to Stoneleigh Park. The bodies had been spread across three buildings on the park until now.
The new environmentally-friendly building has been designed to reflect AHDB’s needs and complement the rural setting of Stoneleigh Park with the use of local and natural materials, according to the organisation.
The first turf was cut in May 2013, with construction on the £5 million development starting in July 2013 and completed last month.
AHDB chairman Peter Kendall said: “This isanother important step forward in helping to make AHDB a more cost-efficient and effective organisation for our levy payers.
“The building has delivered all the communication teams sitting together, all the R&D teams together etc, for the first time in open-plan working spaces – so there are no barriers to communication, helping to promote a more inclusive and open culture. And at no extra cost.”
Contact details such as postal address, telephone numbers and email addresses for AHDB and individual staff members remain unchanged, the organisation pointed out.
See FPJ, 14 November 2014, for an exlusive interview with HDC sector director Bill Parker.
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