Charles Stanley is merging all of its London offices into a single office at 55 Bishopsgate in the heart of the City. The group said the move that will cost £2.7 million will ‘enhance communication and working synergies across front, middle and back office departments’, as well as saving money longer-term. Chief executive Paul Abberley said: ‘We are confident that the relocation and consolidation of a large proportion of our London staff into a central site will enable our professional and support teams to work together more efficiently and place us in good stead to better serve our clients’ needs.’ The relocation of London-based teams to the 47,000 square foot single central site will commence in the fourth quarter with a view to being completed by the first quarter of 2017. The company noted that its ongoing net occupancy costs in the capital are expected to rise by around £1 million a year from 2018. In a stock market update, Charles Stanley said that overlapping rent and occupancy costs will mean it will incur a £2.7 million bill in the financial year to the end of March 2017. However, it said that the increased cost of rent would have been higher if it had renewed the existing leases on its current London offices. The national wealth manager, like a number of its peers, has been consolidating regional branches and looking at a variety of ways to streamline costs in recent times.
Charles Stanley is to spend £2.7m merging its London offices into a single office at 55 Bishopsgate within the heart of the City, so as to "enhance communication and working synergies across front, middle and back office departments", as well as cutting costs in the longer-term.