Virgin Media O2 UK Set to Open New North West HQ in Manchester
Broadband and mobile operator Virgin Media and O2 (VMO2) has today announced that around 1,500 employees (i.e. customer service, commercial and legal teams) are set to move to their new North West HQ in late 2025, which is to be based out of the Island (pictured) building – a net zero carbon workspace in central Manchester.
The new multi-million-pound contract, which is occurring because the lease on the operator’s Wythenshawe office (they’ve occupied this since 1991) is due to expire in early 2026 and ‘Island’ was their preferred replacement, reflects a 10-year agreement to take up around 50% of the new site – almost 50,000 sq ft – with the new regional HQ expected to be operational late next year.
The news follows similar developments in other parts of the country. For example, VMO2’s London-based employees are due to move from Hammersmith to a new state-of-the-art London HQ in Paddington in December 2024, while staff in Lanarkshire will move to a brand-new office space, Maxim Park, early next year. The company also has other core office locations in Reading, Birmingham and Leeds.
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Patricia Cobian, VMO2’s Chief Financial Officer, said:
“This significant investment demonstrates our commitment to retaining a sizeable presence in Manchester, with a flagship new office that places us in the heart of the city’s thriving technology hub. With enviable environmental credentials and excellent transport links, this move will help reduce our carbon emissions and make it easier than ever for our employees to choose more environmentally-friendly modes of transport.”
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
Good for Manchester and the people that live there but I wish more companies would realise that not everyone wants to live in, or travel into a city for a job.
I tried commuting into Manchester from Skemelersdale once and driving to the park and ride, then 30 mins on the team followed by a 20 minute walk to the office, it took me about 2 hours and the people interviewing told me that was good going! I didn’t take the job as a result of that as it’s a minimum 4 hours a day I won’t get back.
Same here, I was based in Soapworks and the commute was over an hour and half to do 40 miles, was glad when I relocated back to the old site
‘A net zero carbon workplace’ what a load of old codswallop.
They’ve probably not considered parking or that the valuable people in this industry would much rather work from home and not commute through rush hour traffic to a city centre. Offices are for managers trying to justify their existence, those who survive on looking like they’re working, people with no social life outside of work and have confused colleagues with friends.
I work from home but sometimes go into the office (bit of a trek to London though). Love going to the office and we’re all quite friendly and go to the pub afterwards, and some of us even talk out of hours and are friends! Believe it or not, colleagues can become friends!